Hide & Seek
by sweda
Summary: A case in Utah pushes Emily to her limits while at the same time the walls of the stable life she thought she had built at home starts to falter and comes crumbling down.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Hello there! Well this is my first attempt to write fan fiction. My plan is to make this a multi-chapter story but right now I'll just publish the first chapter which can be read as a one-shot. I will not update this story on a regular basis right now due to school and other stuff going on in my life right now so this will remain a one-shot for quite a while. I don't have a beta so any errors is my fault and it is my responsibility to correct them so please feel free to pm me if you find any so I can make this story better. Moving on. I have already made my excuses for my English in my profile so let's just skip that and move on to the disclaimer. _

_Disclaimer: Everything and everyone you recognize from the TV show is not mine, it belongs to the CBS. The plot to this story and everything and everyone you don't recognize from the show is a product of my imagination and of that, I am the owner._

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><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek <strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

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><p>"<em>It's all fun and games 'til somebody calls the cops. Then it's hide and seek."<em>

_- Unknown_

"... Happy Birthday to youuu!" the team sang in unison. Their eyes glistened with joy and they all had a slight red touch to their faces thanks to the burning candles placed all over the round table.

It had been five months since Emily had declined Clyde's offer to run the London Office and stayed with the BAU, her family. She had after an internal battle let her love for the team win over _The feeling_. She was done with running. It may not felt like home at the moment but she sure as hell was going to try to make it feel like that again. If she didn't, Doyle had won. He would had taken away the thing she love, her family. She wasn't going to let that happen, he had already tore apart her family once. The first thing she had done after making the decision to stay was to tell the team. They had somehow picked up that she considered taking Clyde's offer and leave, again. When she told them about her decision they were all thrilled and the whole thing ended in an endless amount of hugs.

But it didn't really end there. A few days after Emily had made her announcement Garcia had thrown her a Yay-for-staying-party and the whole team had eaten so many of Garcia's delicious muffins that they weren't able to move within the next four hours.

After the party Emily had brought Derek aside to ask him a question. She didn't remember why, but at that moment she was very nervous which was very uncharacteristic for her. Derek had already done so much for her and asking him for another favour seemed to push it to the top. She had finally, after chewing on her thumb nail and biting her lip, asked if he could come with her and look at the house they had been looking at before the whole bank robbery chaos took place. He had laughed at her nervousness of asking him and happily told her that he would come with her.

The next day they where once again walking around in the house they had a few days before and was absorbing its beauty. The cracks in the foundation was still remaining but this time Emily wasn't going to use them as an excuse. Of course she was still a bit worried that it was a bad purchase but after some convincing from Morgan and a promise that he would help her fix them she had talked to the real estate agent and signed the deal. Morgan had been thrilled and his eyes had sparkled like a child's on christmas eve when they later that day had gone for coffee a few blocks down the street to discuss the renovation of her new home.

Now, Saturday night, sitting at the round table dressed in a black knee-length dress supplemented with a pair of black stilettos and taking small sips of her delicate wine, which Rossi had ordered for everyone except for JJ and Kevin who was serving as drivers tonight, and looking at the happy faces of her friends she was more convinced then ever that she had made the right decision in staying.

Everyone was gathered in the cosy restaurant to celebrate Hotch's birthday. In the question of bringing the two young boys they had all made the decision for tonight to be a night for the grown-ups.

Emily observed that almost half of the team had settled their roots down and had found a loved one. JJ had Will and they seemed just as madly in love as when they first met. Garcia and Kevin had made up after the wedding and now they refused to let go off each other. Hotch had once again found love and Emily was convinced Beth was the best thing happening to him since Jack's birth. After everything he had been through he deserves to be happy. Reid hadn't found a partner but he was still young. Rossi on the other hand had a little less time in front of him but he hadn't long ago lost his first wife and Emily knew she had been the love of his life, even though he had divorced her and gotten remarried, twice. Her own best friend seemed happy still living the life of a single man but Emily had the feeling he was starting to consider settling down with someone and start a family, he had always been amazing with kids. Then it was herself. She had for three months been dating her current boyfriend Dylan. In the beginning she had avoided telling her team about him afraid it might not last but now, three moths later, she couldn't use that as an excuse for them still not knowing about him.

Hotch broke Emily's train of thought by expressing his thoughts about the team's effort to put together this event. "You really didn't have to do this for me you know." His face was covered with one of those very rare smiles.

"Oh stop talking nonsense my birthday Boss man. We didn't do this because we felt we _had_ to, we did this because we care for you and _wanted _to do this," Garcia said flinging her arms around indicating the nice restaurant they had lured their boss to enjoy a delicious meal and was now on to the desert. "Now, shut you mouth and blow out the candles!" This made the whole gathering burst into laughter and urged Hotch to do as Garcia said.

"Oh, oh and don't forget to make a wish!" an exited Reid squealed.

A slightly emotional Hotch leaned forward and blew out the candles neatly placed on top of the fruit cake. Everyone could see he was moved by Garcia's kind words and they all applaud after all the candle had gone out. After blowing out the candles he leaned for his girlfriend and gave her a soft kiss. Morgan started to wolf-whistle and Garcia wasn't slow to follow. Emily feeling in a good mood joined in to and soon the whole table was clapping hands and rejoice escaped everyones mouth. Both Hotch and Beth blushed from all the attention and even though his actions only minutes before had brought the unwanted attention to them Hotch couldn't help himself to place a small peck on Beth's mouth before starting to cut the cake.

"What did you wish for?" Reid wanted to know after everyone had calmed down and pieces of cake was being passed around.

"Don't tell him!" Garcia shouted. "If you do, your wish won't come true!"

"Oh come on, Baby Girl, you don't really believe that do you?" Morgan said.

"You know I do," Garcia answered while digging in on her cake.

"Do you also believe in black cats crossing the road giving you bad luck?"

"Of course I do. I also believe in horoscopes, lucky charms and soul mates."

"I think I can tell you what I wished for without anything too bad happening," Hotch said smiling at Morgan and Garcia's discussion.

"Fine, but if something bad happens during the next days I'm going to blame you, my dear Team Leader," Garcia said while leaning back against the chair and started sipping on her wine.

This made Hotch hesitate but Emily couldn't wait any longer. "Come on Hotch, just tell us. Nobody is going to blame you if something bad happens." Pointing at Reid sitting across the table from herself Emily continued speaking. "We should actually blame Red since he was the one asking."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Reid exclaimed in a high-pitched voice and looked at Emily.

Morgan, sitting next to Emily, started chuckling and held up his fist for her to bump. Emily did so and continued grinning. Rossi shook his head at the childish behaviour but couldn't hold back the smile forming on his lips. He looked at the woman he saw as his daughter and felt his heart swell. He had already lost her once and he was so happy with her decision to stay put. Not willing to admit it to anyone but himself he wasn't sure he could handle losing her again. Well he wouldn't have lost her like he had the first time but still, going to work everyday without seeing her face would brake him. He would probably not think twice about retiring and moving to London just so he could be there to watch her back. That girl had a tendency to bring trouble to herself and Rossi felt obligated to protect her. He had no doubt Morgan felt the same way. Ever since Emily had returned from the dead, their friendship had deepened and in the field they moved as one person. A look from the other was all they needed to know what to do. Having such a strong partnership as they had was everything a law enforcement could ask for. They would give up their own life for their parter in a heartbeat.

"Just tell us Hotch. I can be the scapegoat if anything bad happens," the old agent said and chuckled.

"Okay, I wished for everything to stay the same. I wished for keeping my team just as it is because I couldn't wish for a better one. I also wished for everyone sitting at this table to be happy because I know I am and everybody deserves to know the feeling. The feeling of wanting to wake up in the morning because you know what's waiting for you in real life is so much better than anything you can dream of, both at home and at work. We have had our problems, all of us, and maybe because of those problems we are all sitting here today sharing our love for each other and I couldn't wish for something better. Every one of you sitting around this table will always have a special place in my heart and I hope you know that," Pausing Hotch took a breath and squeezed Beth's hand. "And that is what I wished for," he finished with his voice full of emotions.

During his speech the assemblage had fallen silent and had listened with great intensity to what Hotch was saying. To say his words ha affected them would be un understatement. Garcia hadn't managed to keep the tears from falling and JJ was struggling to keep them at bay but didn't succeed. Reid felt a warmth in his heart he hadn't felt in a long time. Rossi was so proud of his friend for speaking those words, he knew how hard it was for Hotch to express his feelings for his team and their loved ones. Will thought about how lucky he was to be going to spend the rest of his life with the woman he loves and Kevin was honoured that he was included in those words his girlfriend's boss had been speaking. Beth had never let go of Hotch's hand and her gaze was filled with so much love for the man that it was hard to describe. As for Morgan, he had in the middle of Hotch's speech reached for Emily's hand laying on the table and held it tight.

Emily had some trouble herself keeping the tears from shedding and had, when Morgan first grazed her hand, looked away from Hotch and gazed into the warm, loving, brown eyes of her partner and squeezed back. Yes it had been the right decision to stay, no doubt.

"I think you touched a soft spot there," Rossi said and the whole table chuckled lightly.

"You could say so," JJ said while wiping the tears off her face.

"Yeah, I think Sugarplum here needs a few tissues," Kevin announced looking at his girlfriend.

"For future notice, you should really give us a heads up before you start going all emotional. It gets a lot less messier if we have the time to put on water proof mascara," Garcia said while trying to wipe the moisture of her face with a napkin without totally messing up the make-up. "I mean, look at poor JJ over there. Can't you see how she's struggling?"

The table burst into a heart-warming laughter since the one person really struggling was Garcia herself. JJ had, with some help from Will, managed to restore her face to normal and was now laughing at her friend's lame attempt to blame her own struggle on someone else.

"I think the person we really should be worrying about is you, Hot Mama. Kevin you might want to help her out a little since she keeps getting the opposite result to her wishful actions," Morgan was referring to the fact that while trying to wipe away the traces of misplaced make-up, Garcia manage to smear it out even more.

"Come on, Sweetcheeks, give me the napkin," Kevin grabbed for the napkin and started helping Garcia wipe off her misplaced make-up.

"I don't mean to be the party trooper but are we going to get any cake at this side of the table?" Reid wondered indicating where himself, Emily, Morgan, JJ and Will was placed. His eyes kept darting back to the plate of cake standing in front of Garcia sitting next to him. Before his speech Hotch had managed to pass out cake to Beth, Kevin and Garcia. In front of the others where empty plates waiting to serve their purpose.

Once again the gathering started laughing. Leave it to Reid to complain about the missing cake.

Hotch spur back into action and soon everyone had a pice of cake placed on the table in front of them.

"Oh my God! This is amazing!" Emily exclaimed as she took the first bite of her piece of cake.

"Careful there, Princess, we wouldn't want you to have an orgasm here at the table," Morgan teased and earned a playful slap on his shoulder from Emily.

"I haven't eaten a cake this good in years so shut your pretty mouth and let me have my food orgasm without you ruining the whole thing," she said while digging into her piece of cake.

Morgan just looked at his partner and chuckled. Amused he watch as she took yet another bite of the cake and enjoyed its taste.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone enjoy cake as much as you do, Emily," Garcia said with a smirk.

"Well moving around a lot made me appreciate the smaller things," Emily answered as she scoped up another bite. "Such as amazing food." She paused her intake of cake to take a sip of her wine.

Morgan, who had already finished his piece of cake, just had to steal a piece of her remaining cake. He would probably never admit it but the cake was a damn good cake. He stuck his fork in her cake and made a quick journey to his mouth.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Emily shouted panic evident in her voice as she tried to stop the fork from reaching Derek's mouth but it was too late.

Morgan laughed at the look on his partner's face.

"You stole from my amazing piece of cake! Did your mother not teach you manners, Derek Morgan?!" Emily was glaring at a laughing Morgan struggling with the pain his laughing caused his stomach.

By now everyone was laughing at the humorous scene taking place at the birthday table.

"Children behave," Rossi, who sat on the other side of Emily, urged while touching her shoulder slightly. "I'm sure there is plenty of cake left for you to share."

"As long as he doesn't eat it all," Emily muttered and settled back to enjoying the remaining of her cake. She was now watching Morgan carefully and whenever he got too close to her plate for her liking, she made a move at his hand with her fork. JJ shook her head at her friends' childish behaviour which maybe her four year old son would posses, not her very grown up coworkers. She caught Will's eyes and knew he was thinking the same thing.

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><p>The evening continued pretty much the same. After some amount of wine Emily had forgotten all about Morgan's stunt and was now happily charing her glass of alcohol with him. Small talk was made and every now and then a strain of laughter could be heard from their table. It wasn't until JJ glanced at her watch she realised how late it had gotten.<p>

"We should probably get going. I'm sure Annie would like to sleep in her own bed tonight," JJ said indicating their babysitter.

Hotch frowned as he looked at his own watch. It showed half past twelve. "I guess we should head home to. I think Jessica would appreciate a break from Jack by now."

The parents started to gather their things and stood up. Just as Hotch was pulling out a few bills from his wallet Emily spoke up.

"Put those back. Don't you dare try to pay for this. This is _our_ gift to _you, _which means we're paying."

Hotch was about to protest but was cut off by Morgan. "Listen to the woman. I thought you had learned by now that they're always right. Even if they're wrong."

"Hey!" Garcia, JJ, Beth and Emily exclaimed. Emily also took the opportunity to slap Morgan's arm smiling. Morgan started rubbing the spot she had hit.

"Next time someone else is sitting next to her," he said tilting his head at Emily.

"I sat next to her too and I never got exposed to any physical harm," Rossi shrugged and rose from his chair. The team laughed at Rossi's comment. "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm heading home too."

"Maybe we all should head home," Reid said glancing at his watch. "It's starting to get late."

"Okay, just let me finish this glass and I'll get going," Emily said and pointed at her almost empty glass of wine.

"What do you say Kevin? Shall we leave these kids and go home?" Garcia said and nodded at Emily and Morgan.

"Yeah, we should probably get some rest."

Garcia patted Kevin's thigh and started to stand up, he wasn't late to follow.

"Well I guess it's just me, you and this drunk here left then, Kid," Morgan laughed and placed a hand on Emily's back.

"I've only had three glasses, Mister," Emily said with a smirk. "Which is way below my alcohol tolerance," she continued blinking one of her eyes at him.

This made Morgan laugh and place a small kiss at the top of Emily's head. How could you not love the woman?

"Well I don't really know how to thank you for this evening," Hotch said slightly uncomfortable.

"A hug will do fine!" Garcia said and embraced her boss in a colourful hug.

JJ followed after Garcia had let go and gave her boss a hug. They also gave Beth a hug before stepping back to let the men say their goodbyes. Will and Kevin both shook hands with Hotch and gave Beth quick hugs. Rossi didn't follow the two men but embraced both Hotch and Beth in big hugs. The others started to say goodbye to each other and as they did Emily rose form the table and gave Hotch a hug.

"I'm so glad you decided to stay," he stated as they held each other.

"Me too," Emily answered smiling while ending the hug.

The goodbyes continued flowing through the room and the last person Emily said goodbye to was Rossi. He gave her a big hug and placed a small kiss on her cheek.

"I take it you make sure this one gets home safely," Rossi said to Morgan.

"You have my word, man."

Emily tried to brush over the mens' protectiveness of her but was actually moved by how much they cared for her. Exactly like Hotch, she couldn't wish for a better team. Rossi let go of her and started walking towards the door where the rest of the persons leaving was already standing. The team had decided to split the bill between them and therefore had everyone except Hotch left a few dollars to the remaining Agents to pay when they left.

"I don't want to hear anything about someone at the station tomorrow. You all deserve some time off work. Paperwork can wait until Monday, take tomorrow off and do the best of the day!" Hotch said and snook his arm around Beth's waist.

"Thanks man, drive carefully!" Morgan called as they watch the group leave the restaurant.

"How are you getting home Reid?" Morgan wanted to know.

"Oh I made plans with Garcia and Kevin to carpool," Reid said sipping at his glass of water. He had given up the wine a few hours ago because he didn't like how alcohol made him feel.

Both Emily and Morgan glared at Reid and did not understand how someone so smart could be so stupid.

"You mean the people who just left?" Morgan asked amused.

That's when Reid realised why they both where staring at him with such amused looks. To be able to carpool with someone it was facilitate to leave at the same time as the person driving the car did. Emily could see Reid realising his mistake and giggled at his face expression.

"I better hurry before they drive off!" Reid said and quickly rose from his chair. "See you on Monday!" he shouted over his shoulder as he ran towards the doors.

Emily and Morgan laughed at their friend hurrying out from the restaurant.

"He is suppose to be a genius but sometimes he is dumber than Sergio," Emily laughed.

Morgan just shook his head and chuckled. "Some days I think his IQ is limited to statistics and math."

"I agree."

After finished laughing Morgan spoke up. "So what are you planning for tomorrow now that Bossman gave us some unusual free time?"

Emily considered what to answer and soon came up with one. "I'm thinking of reading a book in the park or maybe unpack the last of my boxes. You?"

"I recently bought this property I'm thinking of heading out to. Maybe break down some walls and start painting."

"That sounds like fun," Emily said genuinely.

"You gotta come with me some day. I think it's time for you to help me some now when we've finished your house," Morgan said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Hmm, maybe I could read that book and unpack the boxes some other day," Emily laughed and emptied her glass.

"So you're up for tomorrow?" Morgan asked with a big smile plastered on his face. Spending the day at his property sounded good but having Emily there with him sounded ever better.

"Yes, I would love to."

"Awesome, Princess!" Morgan said while his smile grew wider if even possible.

Smiling at his excitement Emily stood up and put on her jacket. Arriving to the restaurant she hadn't been in a need of the jacket but now, about to leave the restaurant at one in the morning, she would sure as hell need it even thought it was the beginning of May. Morgan followed her actions and waved for the waiter to pay the bill.

After paying they walked out in the chilling night and waved for a cab. It only took a few minutes before a cab stopped and they hopped in. Morgan told the driver to drive to Emily's address and they rode silently, enjoying each others presence. The ride didn't take long and soon Emily was stepping out if the cab in front of her home. Morgan was about to follow before she stopped him by bending down and looking into the cab.

"I know you told Rossi you would make sure I got home safely but let's not forget that I'm a trained FBI agent who can take care of herself," she smiled.

"Ever so stubborn," Morgan chuckled and stayed in the cab. "See you tomorrow!"

"See ya!" Emily said before slamming the door and waited for the cab to drive off before walking to her door.

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><p><em>AN: Thank you for reading this and please leave a review so I know if I did well or not. Don't expect the whole story to be this happy because that ain't what's waiting for you. I hope you had a good read and remember to take care of yourselves fellow Fanfictioners! _


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Hi again! I've finally got some writing done and felt like I could publish the next chapter. I have to warn you, this is no way as happy as the last one. If violence is not your thing, I recommend you don't read this. As to the fact of updating, I__'m not sure I will be able to post frequently but I'll do my best. _

_For those of you who have visited my story before, you may have noticed that I changed the summary. That is because the old summary could only be applied on the first chapter. Now, I'll just shut up and let you guys read._

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><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek <strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

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><p>Emily inserted her key and opened the door. Stepping inside, she locked the night out and turned on the lights. What met inside her made her nearly jump out of her own skin.<p>

"Dylan! You scared me. What are you doing here?" She managed to get out after her heart had stopped trying to crack her ribcage and jump out of her chest. Thinking about it Emily wondered how her boyfriend had gotten into her apartment, she hadn't given him a key and was confused about how he had gotten inside.

"I was waiting for you but apparently you decided to come home way after midnight!" His voice wasn't the normal loving one she was used to and she couldn't help but to feel hurt by his harsh tone directed towards her.

"I was out celebrating my Boss's birthday, which I told you about three days ago. You knew about this!" Emily didn't care to cover up her own irritation. She was tired and _not _in a mood for an argument.

She stepped further into her apartment and dumped her handbag on the kitchen island. His glare followed every move she made.

"Well I didn't think you would be out until after one am!"

"Since when do I have to inform you when I'll be coming home and speaking of which, how did you get in here?"

"I asked your neighbour to let me in."

"And he just did?!"

Emily had, while giving him a spare key to her house to help her feed Sergio when she was away for a case, specifically talked to him about letting people into her home. Ever since Doyle, Emily had been careful about who to let inside.

"I told him it was an emergency and it was since you were still not home by eleven!" Dylan took one step closer to her and his body towered over hers.

With her heels she was almost as tall as him but he had a few inches on her. You didn't need to be a profiler to know that he was angry. His body language would tell you that in less than a minute.

By now Emily was starting to get angry herself. Who did he think he was decided when she should be at home and not? Sure, he was her boyfriend since three moths back but that didn't give him the right to decide for her how to live her life.

"I think I have the right to return home at any hour I want to without you questioning where I've been!" Emily snapped.

Fuelled by her snapping at him, Dylan took the few steps separating them so that he was standing right in front of her. "Don't use that tone while talking to me, Emily," he growled.

"Oh, now you're telling me how to speak to you too! I can speak to you however I want!" she shot back.

Who did he think he was telling her how to act and how to talk? He was talking to her in the exact same tone she was using against him but that didn't seem to matter.

"Don't push me, Emily!"

Dylan's usually bright green eyes were dark. By now she was starting to wonder what had gotten into him. Why was he acting so weird? During the three moths they had been dating, he had been nothing but kind to her. Never had he raised his voice and never had she seen those dark eyes.

Even though, she couldn't help to talk back.

"Don't push you?! Are you serious?! I'm not the one trying to pick a fight here!"

Before Emily knew what had happened Dylan had grabbed a hold of her right wrist and pulled her against him. "I told you not to push me," he said, his face inches away from her own.

By now Emily was scared but she refused to let him see it so she stared straight into his eyes.

"Let. Go. Of. My. Arm." she said and emphasised every word.

Dylan glared back but did as he was told.

Once he did so Emily took a step back, not comfortable standing so close to him when he was acting like he was. Where had the loving and kind man she fell in love with gone? Because that was the truth, she had a hard time admitting it to herself but since a week back she was pretty sure she had fallen in love with him.

After being quiet for quite some time he spoke again.

"You have been drinking," Dylan stated with a tone of disgust.

Emily was taken aback. Since when did he have a problem with alcohol? During their first date, he had been the one insisting they should order a nice bottle of wine to go with the dinner.

"And I sure as hell hope that's not the dress you wore for your Boss's birthday party!"

Emily looked down at her dress and didn't understand what he meant. The dress was covering more skin than most of the dresses out there. It didn't even have visible cleavage which Emily had been careful to make sure it did to cover up the four leaf clover still branded on the left side of her chest.

"What is wrong with this dress?!" Emily demanded to know.

He let his eyes wander her body, making Emily uncomfortable, before answering. "Well first of all, it is way too tight to wear in front of your co-workers. And secondly, it makes you look like a whore," Dylan said and threw his arms out.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! This is the exact same dress I wore on our third date!" Emily screamed as her discomfort transformed to rage.

"What's wrong with me?! With _me?!" _Dylan yelled. "I'm not the one dressed like a hoe!"

Emily took a small step back at his harsh words. She was fighting so hard not to show him how much his harsh words affected her. Her eyes were burning from unwanted tears threatening to fall and she blinked rapidly to make them vanish. How could she ever think she loved him?

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><p>The screams kept echoing from Emily's home throughout the night and it wasn't until her phone started ringing that they stopped.<p>

She reached for her phone in her bag placed on the kitchen island, looking at it she saw it was Hotch calling, and was just about to answer when Dylan snatched the phone out of her hand and answered himslef.

"She's not available right now," he said and ended the call.

During his short exchange of words with her Boss, Emily started to move towards her door to get her jacket. She had only taken two or three steps towards it before she felt a hand on her arm.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Dylan growled while grabbing her arm and yanking her back to him.

Emily turned to face him and spoke with as much calm as she could manage at the moment, which wasn't much.

"To work. That's usually why my Boss calls me at-" Emily glanced at the clock hanging on the wall above the dining table. She didn't believe what it read, bloody _seven am!_ They had been arguing for freaking six hours!

"- Seven am." Emily finished off her sentence.

"Oohh, and you always come running when your Boss tells you to," Dylan mocked with a voice Emily didn't recognise.

His eyes was filled with disdain, something she never though she would see in Dylan's eyes until this day. This day Dylan wasn't the man she fell in love with during those amazing moths together. This day Dylan was someone else, a shell of his old self and Emily couldn't help but to wonder what had made him change so completely.

"'Emily I need you here at the station.' 'Emily I need you to pick up some food for the team on your way over here.' 'Emily I think some coffee would be nice, would you be an angel and make some?' 'Emily I need you to pick up my laundry.' 'Emily I need you to stay late tonight.' 'Emily suck my dick!" For each one of his mocking sentences his voice grew louder.

He imitated what Emily reasoned must be his twisted version of Hotch since he was indeed her Boss but never had he said such things as Dylan asserted.

If she wasn't pissed of before she sure as hell was now. Never in her life had she followed others' orders like a submissive woman. She would _never _let anyone treat her like that, just telling her what to do and not letting her decide on her own.

By now she was furious and the only thing she wanted to do was throw her boyfriend out. But not before getting her phone back, which he still had a tight grip on.

Emily tried to retrieve her phone from Dylan's grip, not willing to take his bullshit anymore but he used both his hands to push her away from him straight into the wall next to the fridge.

Her head connected with the frame hanging on the wall and pain radiated through her head. The pain made her legs unsteady and she closed her eyes, trying to regain her balance.

During her attempt to fight off the dizziness, she could hear Dylan's angry breathing. Once she opened her fluttering eyelids, she could see how he was pacing the room in angry strides and how he later placed her phone on the far end of the table behind him.

"What the hell?!" Emily finally managed to get out after steading herself and overcoming the worst of her dizziness.

She made a move to grab her phone and did barely have the time to register the hand coming at her face as she did.

Pain exploded from her lower jaw when the hand connected with her face and the force behind it sent her flying for the bench in her kitchen. Her back collided with the handles of the cabinet drawers, which made the air escape her lungs.

She reached out for the bench to keep herself from falling and fought to get air down her lungs again. Her mouth throbbed with the rhythm of her heartbeat and she knew he had split her lower lip, maybe even given her jawbone a crack. She put one of her hands on her jaw and opened and closed it to see how much damaged he had done. It hurt like a bitch but from experience, she could tell it wasn't broken.

Once done with her injury check-up she shifted her gaze from the floor to meet his eyes. He was staring back at her, not a single sign if remorse showing in his eyes. She took a deep breath and spoke between gritted teeth.

"We are _soo_ over!" She still had some trouble breathing so she had to take a short pause before continuing. "Get the hell out of my house!"

Clearly pissed off by her talking back, he screamed at her. "Do you think you can tell me what to do and not to do? You're not the Boss here, I am!"

Reaching for her bag still laying on the island, she picked out her gun and aimed it at Dylan.

"I said_ Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. House_!" Emily made sure to emphasise every word leaving her mouth, making sure he understood how serious she was.

Staring back at her, Dylan made no move to leave. Emily un-did the safety of the gun and held it with steady hands levelled at his chest.

"If I were you, I would get the fuck out of here before I decided to put a bullet to your little once."

As she spoke she shifted her aim from his chest to his crotch.

This made him take one small step for the door, then another one and another one. For every step he took, Emily made sure to keep her gun aimed at her target.

He was now standing by the door reaching for the handle.

"If I ever see you again I won't think twice about keeping my promise," Emily said as he opened the door and walked out.

As the door closed behind him Emily rushed over to it and turned the lock. She even put the chain on before taking a few steps back only to break out into uncontrollable sobs.

Her emotions were a roller coaster. Anger, hurt, confusion, disappointment, pain. And worst of all was that her heart felt like it was falling apart, bit by bit. One crack leading to another.

She let herself slide down against the door and pulled up her knees. Her actions made a string of pain jolt through her body but the pain really threatening to break her wasn't the physical one, it was the emotional.

Getting whacked on the head with a 2x4 she could handle. Also getting run off the road, not a problem. Hell she would even triad getting poled by Doyle against the pain she felt right now. This wound wasn't one you could stitch up and prescribe some painkillers to get rid of. This wound was hurting her from the inside and out, threatening to consume her.

She didn't know how long she stayed in the same position, crying her eyeballs out but when glancing at the digital clock on her radio she shot back up in her feet. If she didn't get to work soon, her team would arrange a search party for her and she wasn't up for that.

She wiped her face with the back of her hands and went to the kitchen to retrieve her bag. Because she had wasted so much time crying her eyes out for some jack ass she didn't have the time to change clothes.

She was going to have to do it at the station, she reasoned. She always had a pair of clean clothes stuffed in her go-bag so they will do.

She didn't waste any time on looking at her phone which she knew would hold at least a dozen text messages from both Garcia and Hotch. She was pretty sure that if she checked she would find a few from Morgan too.

She didn't trust her own voice enough to call to tell them she was on her way so she didn't. They would notice when she showed up.

Taking her car keys in her hand and putting her jacket on, she unlocked the door and let her eyes search the street outside before walking to her car. There was no sign of him and she hoped he had gone home.

She inserted the key and backed out form the parking space. Her drive to Quantico was fast thanks to the low amount of traffic. After putting her car into park, she allowed herself to take a few seconds to improve her looks.

"You got thirty seconds," she told herself before angling the review mirror her way.

What met her was the face of a broken woman. The tears she didn't know she had been shedding had left marks on her cheeks. Her lip was swollen and the cut dividing her lower lip into two had almost stopped bleeding but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't make it stop completely. She fixed her by now long hair to cover as much swelling as possible. She had, during the five moths since she decided to stay, let her hair grow longer and by now it was back to the length it had been three years ago. She couldn't do anything about her wrinkled dress and looking at her right wrist, she could see a black bruise staring to emerge.

Deciding that her thirty seconds of calm before the storm was up, she stepped out of her car and headed for the elevators.

From the moment she stepped inside the elevator, Emily had tried to decide whether or not to lie about how she obtained her injuries. After a number of failed attempts to come up with a credible lie she had, with a sigh, settled on the decision to tell the truth. They would find out sooner or later anyway, they were all Profilers after all.

The ride went quicker than she wanted it to. She stepped out when the doors opened and started to walk towards the glass doors leading into the bullpen.

Inside the glass doors there was almost no activity at all, what you could expect on a Sunday morning.

She put her handbag on her desk but left her jacket on, it covered up the bruising around her wrist and probably some of it on her back. The dress she was wearing was cut pretty low, which left parts of her back exposed. She took one deep breath before staring to walk up the stairs leading to the catwalk who lead to the briefing room.

The door separating the catwalk and the briefing room was slightly ajar and inside she could hear Garcia briefing the team about a new case. She put her hand on the doorknob, pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Her action caught the team's attention and upon seeing Emily's face Garcia stopped talking and gasped.

The team, not able to see what had made Garcia stop talking, turned around and found Emily standing there. The fact that she was wearing the exact same clothes as the last time they saw her didn't slip by any of them. Neither did her bruised face, split lip and sad eyes.

With all of them staring at her she felt like she needed to say something. The best she could come up with was to excuse herself for being late.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she said as she studied everyones reaction to her appearance. The whole situation reminded her of when she faced the team for the first time after returning from the so called dead.

Nobody seemed to care for her excuse, their main focus was on finding out what had happened to their friend and co-worker.

A small "Oh my God!" could be heard from JJ and looking at Reid, Emily was sure his eyes were about to pop out from his eye sockets.

Rossi's eyes radiated pure concern and the expression on Hotch's face wasn't the one to expect from him. He usually keeps his mask of professionalism on, not letting any emotions show but now his face was a dam of emotions. Confusion, worry and Emily was pretty sure she could detect an ounce of guilt.

Morgan on the other hand wasn't afraid to let his emotions consume his facial features. As soon as he had gotten a look of her face, he had flung up from the chair he had been sitting in while listening to the briefing and went straight to her side.

"What the hell happened!?" Morgan exclaim as he changed his position from sitting to standing.

Uncomfortable was the only word Emily could use to describe the situation. She hated being the centre of attention. She wasn't sure if they could tell she had been crying but she was pretty sure her eyes were still blood-shot.

"Who did this to your face?!" Morgan said frustrated with not getting any answers from his friend.

He carefully took a hold of the unbruised part of her chin and turned the bruised side to face him. As he did he put his other hand on the back of her head, placing it where only forty minutes ago a frame had made it impression.

The contact to her head wound made her hiss in pain and her reflexes made her yank away from his touch.

Not sure what had caused her to hiss in pain and yank away, Morgan searched for her eyes. When gaining eye contact his black orbs was filled with concern and rage. He wasn't willing to admit it but he did feel a little hurt over her pulling away from him but he quickly ignored the feeling. Now wasn't the time to be selfish.

She broke the eye contact and put her arms around herself. As profilers the team knew this was a way for her to separate herself from the others. She was starting to put her walls up.

To everyones surprise Emily cleared her throat and started to speak up.

"What happened is that my boyfriend, _ex-boyfriend,_" she corrected herself "thought I was in need of some Botox and decided to take it up on his own to make sure I got it."

Her rather harsh statement had everyone stunned.

"Wait you have a boyfriend?" JJ had never heard of anyone and was confused. She looked at Garcia to see if she knew anything about it. The look on her face told JJ she didn't.

"I _had _a boyfriend before he decided that I was a whore and accused me of cheating," Emily answered.

Morgan hadn't listened to the words exchanging for the last minutes. All he could think of was that some dude had beaten his partner. After she had told them, all he could see was red. It took him every ounce of strength he had in his body to stop himself for running out of the room to go looking for the son of a bitch and beat him until he was unrecognisable.

"He hit you?" Morgan finally managed to ask after calming himself down a bit, his voice full of emotion.

His question got Emily's attention and she turned to him. The pain in her eyes was all the answer he needed but the small nod and her small 'yeah' confirmed it to the others.

"I'm going to kill him!" Morgan growled.

"No, you're not, Morgan," Hotch said in his most authoritative voice.

"Can't you see what he did to her?!" Morgan said indicating the large bruise on Emily's jaw and the split lip.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Emily argues, trying to calm Morgan down.

Both Agents ignored her comment and continued their argument.

"Yes, I can but I don't think killing him is going to solve the probl-"

Hotch was cut short by a yelp from Garcia.

"Chocolate Thunder you're bleeding!" she shrieked, pointing at Morgan's right hand.

Not sure what she meant, Morgan looked down at his hand and yes indeed it was blood on it. The problem was, the blood wasn't his. He didn't have a cut anywhere on his hand which meant the blood had to come from someone else. Realisation hitting him, he was once again at Emily's side gently putting his hand at the back of her head.

"Ouch!" Emily said as he hit the fresh wound and tried to pull away.

Morgan kept her still and examined the back of her skull.

"Emily, you're bleeding," Morgan remarked, worry tinting his voice.

"You should go to a hospital," Reid voiced full of concern. "If you hit your head you could have a concussion. There are between 1.6 - 3.8 million sport related concussions reported in the U.S every year and the number of non-sport related concussions every year is-"

"I don't need a hospital, it's just a small gash," Emily said cutting Reid off before he started his non-stop rambling of statistics. Also basting herself out of Morgan's hold on her head. "Nothing I haven't come across before or can't handle," Emily stated with a firm voice.

That was the sad truth. During her lifetime Emily had sustained so many wounds and breaks she was amazed how the hospital personal was able to carry her medical chart around.

During the last seven years she had been smacked on the head with a 2x4 by a mentally unstable dad, been beaten while held hostage by a crazy cult leader, been run off from the road by a truck, been staked on a pole by her old nemesis, been shot in the shoulder by a delusional teenager and almost blown up twice in one day thanks to some whacko bank robbers. In that order. And that was just the list from her time with the BAU. If you were to look at the part of her medical chart from her days with the CIA you would probably get a headache from all the reading. Now she could add getting hit by her deadbeat boyfriend to the list too.

From the looks on her colleagues' faces, none were convinced.

"Seriously, I'm fine," Emily insisted and walked in her high heels to the empty chair standing next to the one Morgan had been sitting in.

The headache she got from being thrown around in her kitchen was starting to bug her real big and her feet was aching from being squeezed into a pair of high heels all night.

At that point sitting down seemed like a nice gesture for both her head and her feet but as she slumped down in the chair, she had to rethink her decision. The drop made her headache worse and she had to close her eyes to focus on getting through the pain.

Once she opened them again, she was met by Morgan's dark orbs.

"_I'm_ _fine," _Emily tried to reassure them with a sigh. "It's just a headache. Now can we _please _focus on the case?"

Garcia looked at the Team Leader for guidance whether or not to do as Emily told them to and after receiving a small nod from Hotch, she started where she had left off.

"As I was saying, last night the body of Carmichael Smith, 64 years of age, was found blown to pieces in an abandoned warehouse."

On the screen behind her photos of black limbs could be seen. Garcia was careful not to turn around knowing what horrors were being exhibited behind her.

"During the last three weeks, three more bodies have been found in the exact same condition but in different locations in St. George, Utah. All were positive IDs to known addicts. Those bodies would belong to the first victim Samantha Winters, age 26, followed by vicim number two and three Tom Scully, 35 and Nick Ice, 16. Samantha Winters was found, in pieces, in an old blown up house. Tom Scully, not with the correct anatomy as to say his body was by then body_ parts_ scattered all around, was found in the woods next to a destroyed portable toilet. Our young Nick Ice had the liberty to be found in one piece, him in an abandoned tool shed."

Garcia inhaled before continuing.

"But here is the hanky thing. Before these murders were committed, the local authorities was sort of notified. And that my lovelies, is starting to freak out the big bad Policemen in St. George. According to the Detective in charge, and this is an exact quote, "it feels like me and my men are playing a game of Hide and Seek we don't know the rules of"."

She pressed the remote in her hand and a new photo showing a map covered replaced the gruesome images on the screen. This photo, Garcia wasn't afraid to look at.

"This is a map the Police got from what they believe to be the killer. As you can see, a specific area is circled with a red marker and right here..." Garcia said pointing at a spot on the map "... is where our ol' fellow Carmichael Smith was found."

Once again Garcia pressed a button and three other maps popped up on the big screen.

"Similar maps to this one was sent to the local cops before all the other murders occurred and now, after failing to rescue the victims, they called us and asked if we could help. Our creep also sends them a photo of the victims so they know who they are looking for," Garcia said and made a face.

"What the local cops have figured out though is that the bomb doesn't detonate until approximately twelve hours after the map have been received," she finished and sat down at the table with the others.

During the briefing Emily had felt her teammates glancing her way but she choose to ignore them. The truth was, if the situation had been reversed she would probably have done the same thing just to make sure they were alright.

She was drawn back to reality when Rossi spoke up.

"Well, it is obvious that the UnSub is looking for attention otherwise he wouldn't provide the maps to the Police."

Everyone nodded in confirmation.

"But the question is why hasn't he contacted the media yet? That's the easiest way to get attention," Rossi questioned, looking at his tablet containing the information about the killings.

"You're right. If his, or hers, main urge was to kill, sending maps to the Police of where the victims are being hold would totally screw up his plan," Morgan speculated. "So our question is what drives this UnSub?"

"I don't know but we're about to find out. Wheel's up in thirty! We're going to Utah," Hotch said and rose from his chair.

* * *

><p><em>AN: So what do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts! Until next time! :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: First of all I just want to say thank you to everyone who have favourited/followed this story, it makes me really happy! To those who reviewed, you are loved. Feedback always makes me more eager to keep writing. l'd also like to say a special thank you to Shadpup who decided to sacrifice some time to help me make his story better by sharing some writing tips. Thank you!_

_As to the updates of this story. The reason for my rather frequent posting lately is a so called Autumn-break we have here in Sweden. It's given me the time to write more than usual and for that I'm thankful. My plan though is to try to post a new chapter maybe once every two weeks, we'll see how that works out. If that's not possible for some reason, I will at least post once a month._

_I do apologise for this extremely long author's note but I just wanted you to get a picture of how I'm planing to proceed with this story. _

_Now on to the story. This chapter probably contains a lot less action than the last one but I think it will keep you interested anyway. Now enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

* * *

><p>After Hotch had made the final verdict, everyone started to rise from their respective chairs. Reckoning her experience when sitting down, Emily was careful not to rise too quickly. She could see the team eyeing her while doing so but avoided getting eye contact with any of them.<p>

"I'm not blind you know," Emily said indicating their stares.

Realising he was busted, Morgan reasoned it would be best to speak his mind. "No but you might be suffering of a concussion and I don't want you dropping to the floor."

"I won't since I do _not _have a concussion!" Emily assured them, frustration evident in her voice. "I really do appreciate your concern but if you keep watching over me like hawks I'm going to slap you." Pausing Emily looked from one profiler to another. "All of you," she finished off her threat.

This made Rossi start chuckling quietly and caused a small one of Hotch's unusual smirks appear.

"That's our Emily," Rossi stated and gently touched her shoulder on his way out of the briefing room.

Hotch, JJ and Reid soon followed which left Emily, Garcia and Morgan still in the room.

"Now I'm going to take a shower and–" Emily glared at Garcia who was just about to start protesting. "–I don't wan't any of you two trying to sneak after me to make sure I don't get all dizzy and fall in the shower."

"Especially not you Morgan," Emily said and arced a finger at him.

Even though he didn't like the thought of her might falling in the shower because of her head injury, he understood her need to be independent. It was in her nature. She had grown up, only able to rely on herself and her instincts to do so had followed her till today.

"But what if you do get dizzy and fall?!" Garcia bursted out in her own paranoid way, not at all satisfied and ready to accept Emily's conditions.

"Garciaaa..." Emily sighed. "I won't do that because _I do not have a concussion!" _Emily empathised, frustration filling her whole demeanour. "If I'm not on the jet in twenty minutes you have the permission to go look for me in the gym-showers."

With those words Emily left the room and headed for her go-bag sitting by her desk. In the bag she had clothes for at least a week and hopefully she would get through with six outfits for their new case. If she didn't, she would have to get her ass over to the nearest shop selling jeans and t-shirts.

* * *

><p>The hot water from the shower eased her tensed muscles and made her body relax. What it couldn't fix was the empty feeling she had inside.<p>

How come every time her future is starting to look bright, her life comes crashing down and destroys that glimpse of light? She cursed at herself for getting her hopes up, how could she when her life seemed to be one disaster lined up after another?

She didn't cry now though. She was done with crying. Only once had she cried more in one day other than this and it was when she was told she was dead. The day when she realised that she could no longer talk to her friends because they thought she was resting six feet under.

She couldn't call Derek to ask him about how his day was or offer her support when he needed it. She wouldn't walk in to the bullpen and get attacked by Reid's non-stop babble of statistics and random facts.

Neither could she lift up her phone and call Garcia if she had a bad day, hoping that she would make it better. That woman always made her smile no matter how down she was feeling.

She missed Rossi and would do anything for a dinner at his place with the team. She would no longer follow up on Hotch's orders and neither would she get to hear JJ talk about Henry.

She couldn't turn up on Girls' Night Out because then it would probably turn into Girls' Freak Out.

Being treated like shit by her boyfriend could never measure up to the feelings she had that day but still, she had spend the beginning of her day crying.

She wanted to be angry with Dylan for making her feel this way but her emotions did not listen to her request. Since the anger refused to fill her body she wished for the water to take her feelings with it down the drain and leave her numb, neither did that happen. She would give almost anything to not feel now. But the only thing the water flowing down the drain brought with it was blood from her split lip and head gash.

At that point, standing in the shower, Emily was oblivious to her phone placed at one of the benches in the looker room, buzzing from repeated incoming calls.

* * *

><p>She carefully washed her hair with shampoo and swore in a least three different languages at the pain it caused her scalp. With time, the sting subdued and while washing her body with soap the pain was bearable.<p>

The bruises on her back she gained while getting showed into her kitchen bench hurt but not too bad. What annoyed her the most at the moment was her headache not willing to fade away. To the contrary, it increased.

Stepping out of the showers she reached for her towel while the steam from the hot water filled the room. After drying her body, Emily went to the locker room and put on her clothes.

She had retrieved a pair of blue denim jeans and a white t-shirt from her go-bag which she was now wearing. She used her towel to dry her hair as much as she could and then combed through it.

She glanced at her watch and stated that she wouldn't have the time to straighten it, she had to accept that some curls would make themselves present. It was either that or Garcia would come crashing down there while screaming for paramedics, convinced that Emily had fallen and hit her head.

She decided that the first scenario would a bring less attention to it than the second one.

When finished with her hair she moved on to applying make-up. She debated whether or not to put on any foundation since it would hurt like hell while doing so, hence of the bruised and probably cracked jaw. She concluded that she didn't have time for the long and painful procedure since she already had excluded the second scenario.

She quickly put on mascara and coloured the non-sore parts of her lips with a reddish nude colour and couldn't do much about the rest.

Because of her stupid decision not to put ice on her lip, the swelling had become pretty bad. When touching it, it stung like a pair of angry bees.

Besides from aching, it looked really nasty, red, swollen and very irritated. The only positive thing with it at the moment wast that it had finally stopped bleeding and a small scab had started to form. When arriving at the police station she surely was going to attract some of the locals' stares.

As she was in the middle of her train of thought, her phone started vibrating from an incoming call and brought her back to reality.

She picked up the phone from the gym bench on which she had placed it before stepping into the shower and looked at the caller ID.

What she saw made no improvement to her mood, it was Dylan calling.

She ignored his call and then looked at her list of missed calls. During the last hour, since she arrived at the station, Dylan had called her twenty-five times and sent her fifteen text messages.

Seriously! She thought he got the hint when she pulled out her gun, threatening to castrate him but apparently not.

She deleted all of his messages without even looking at them, whatever he had to say to her she wouldn't hear it. After finishing deleting the messages she blocked Dylan's number and put the phone in her jeans pocket.

Deciding that she was presentable she hung up the wet towel to dry and collected her things before heading upstairs where she retrieve her gun and badge before meeting up with the others at the jet.

* * *

><p>She entered the plane with still damp hair and sat her course to one of the window seats at the small table in the middle of the jet. She threw her go-bag on the floor where it wouldn't cause any problems and sat down.<p>

Everyone else was already there even though it was still five minutes left until spoken time.

It didn't take long until Morgan was taking the seat next to hers and nudged Emily with his elbow.

"Baby Girl was about to chase you down ten minutes after you left but I convinced her not to," he informed her.

"Thank you," Emily replied and fought not let the team see how much her headache was bothering her.

During her rush to and from the shower she had forgotten to take an aspirin and now her head was killing her.

Even though she has a history as an undercover agent, which means she is trained to hide her emotions and her true self, Morgan detected her discomfort.

"Head still bothering you?" he asked softly.

"Yeah, I forgot to take an aspirin," Emily answered.

From the other side of the plane Reid was listening in in their conversation. He was worried about Emily but unlike Morgan he wasn't so good at putting words into his feelings.

On the other hand, doing favours and helping out a friend he was better at so when Reid heard about Emily's headache he joined in on their conversation.

"I have some Bayer in my bag if you want."

Touched by his offer, Emily smiled at him. "Thanks but I don't like what those do to me. I have some Tylenol in my bag and if you could just move over, Derek, I can get them."

As she spoke she started to rise from her seat but before Morgen even got the chance to move over, JJ was at Emily's bag.

"I can grab them for you," she said and started to look through Emily's bag.

Emily sank back down in her seat and rested her head against the headrest. "Thanks, I think it should be somewhere on the right side," Emily tried to guide JJ's search.

After a few minutes of searching, JJ cried victory. "Found it!"

She then walked over to where Emily was seated and said 'Here' while she held out the bottle of pills for her.

"Do you need any water?" JJ asked after giving Emily the bottle.

"No, it's fine," Emily declined.

Beside her Morgan frowned. He hadn't seen her drink anything since the wine the night before at the restaurant and he had his suspicions she hadn't gotten the chance to consume any water during her time at home.

"I still think you should drink some water," Morgan argued and shot JJ the could-you-please-bring-her-some-water-look.

JJ caught up on the worried gaze Morgan had while looking at Emily and couldn't do anything but nod.

She too was a bit worried for her friend. Sure JJ had seen Emily during some of her worst days but during those she still had that glimpse of life and determination in her eyes. Looking at her eyes now, all JJ could see was sadness and hurt.

She realised her gaze from Emily and headed for the plane fridge to retrieve a bottle of water.

Emily just shrugged at Morgan's comment and accepted the water JJ brought back for her.

The fact that she did made it clear to Morgan that she wasn't her usual self. A normal Emily Prentiss would argue and not give up without a fight. When she didn't Morgan began worrying that the ordeal with her boyfriend had taken a bigger toll on her than she let the others know.

He made a mental note to himself to check up on her regularly. In that note he also made a comment about not being too persistent, that would just bring out the worst of Emily Prentiss and he always made an effort to avoid that side of her.

Emily threw two aspirins in her mouth and put the bottle of water to her lips. Along with the water she swallowed the pills and hoped that it wouldn't take long before they started to work their magic.

The pilot told them they were ready for take-off and the profilers who were still standing sat down in an empty seat. Rossi put himself in the seat opposite Emily and JJ sat next to him. Hotch made himself comfortable in one of the single chairs and all of the passengers put their seatbelt on.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes they were allowed to take off the seatbelt and they all did so. Then Hotch spoke up.<p>

"Let's go over the case before we land."

JJ reached for the files stored in her bag and put them on the small table separating her and Rossi from Emily and Morgan.

"So we have a killer who targets low-risk victims," she stated. She was referring to the fact that all of the victims was addicts which put them around criminal activity all the time. One less addict on the street was unfortunately hard to notice. Also the fact that they were all living on the street made it harder for others to notice them go missing.

"I agree. I think we should call Garcia and see if she's found any common link between the victims except that they were all addicted to some kind of substitute and living on the street," Hotch spoke.

As soon as Hotch had said 'call Garcia', Morgan had opened up the computer and started a video call with one of her computers back at her lair in Quantico.

"_You have reached the all knowing Oracle of Quantico. What can I do for you, my lovelies?" _Garcia's chipper voice answered.

Her greeting brought a smile to every profilers' face, including Emily's.

"Hey, Baby Girl. We're wondering if you've been able to connect the victim in any other way than that they were all using," Morgan asked her.

"_At the moment no but if you give me a few seconds I will claw my way through cyberspace and give you a more detailed answer to that question."_

On the other side of the line a clicking sound could be heard and on the screen, the profilers could see Garcia frantically pushing the keys of her keyboard.

"_Victim number two and three went to the same school but at different times…" _her voice trailed off.

"And that would be Tom Scully and Nick Ice. Am I correct?" Rossi cut in.

"_Yes, Italiano, you're totally correct," _Garcia's glee tune informed them. _"As to any other connections I can't seem to find any at the moment but you will be the first to know if I do so!"_

"One more thing, Garcia, before you take off," Hotch said. "Could you compile a list of known locations for the victims? That would help us with the geographical profile."

"_Sure thing, Boss Man. I will need some time to do that but as soon as I'm done, I'll send it to you. If that's all for now then Garcia out!"_

The FBI logo returned to the computer screen as Garcia ended the call.

Seconds later Hotch's phone started to ring.

"I know she is fast but she is not _that _fast," Morgan said and glanced at Hotch with raised eyebrows.

Hotch picked up the phone from his pocket and looked at the caller ID, unknown it read.

Not sure who or what to expect, Hotch answered with his professional "This is Agent Aaron Hotchner."

On the other side of the line a really angry man could be heard. Hotch had to hold the phone a few inches from his ear not to go completely deaf.

It was impossible for the rest of the team not to hear the man.

"_...you think so high of yourself Agent Hotchner but what you really are is a pig!"_

Confused at who this man was and how he got his number, Hotch didn't answer immediately. He was trying to remember who he could have pissed off lately. A vicim's relative? An UnSub they had caught? A teacher at Jack's school?

No matter how hard the tried he couldn't come up with anyone.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but I think you got the wrong number."

Rossi looked at Hotch with raised eyebrows and Hotch just shrugged. To be honest he had no clue who the man was or what was going on. The voice in the phone got a little bit lower so that the team could no longer hear him clearly. By now the team could only make out bits and pieces of words here and there.

As it did Hotch put the phone back to his ear.

Morgan looked over at Emily sitting next to him and found her face scrunched up in a frown all while keeping her eyes on Hotch. Not able to get eye contact, he looked away and turned to Reid to see if he knew what was going on but he looked just as confused as everyone else on the jet.

Emily, on the other hand, was frowning because she was sure she had heard that voice before but couldn't put a face to it. Confused she kept track of the conversation as her brain worked full time trying to find the face to the voice.

"Did you know that the average person makes about 1 140 phone calls every year which is an average of 3,12 phone calls a day. The chance of it being a wrong number dial is therefor highly likely," Reid informed everyone while Hotch was caught up in his conversation.

The man on the phone continued his conversation no one except himself could understand.

"_So this isn't the Aaron Hotchner who's in charge of FBI's Behaviour Analysis Unit?!"_

"Yes, it's him but I don't understand what you are talking about," Hotch said with a frown.

"Or maybe not," Reid declared with a frown as he heard Hotch confirm that he was the person the caller was looking for.

"_I'm talking about the fact that you treat the women in your untie like property and fools around with them! Or is it FBI policy to sleep with the women on the team you're in charge of?!"_

Hotch was chocked by the man's accusations and therefore kept silent.

"_If you ever touch Emily again I swear I'll make you pay for it!" _the man on the phone threatened Hotch.

"Emily?" Hotch repeated her name with confusion written all over his face. His eyes went straight to her as he heard the man say her name.

During the conversation Emily had been oblivious to the fact that it was her boyfriend screaming at her Boss until she, seconds later, heard her name. That was when the token fell down. The voice on the phone belonged to Dylan.

The reason she hadn't recognised him at first was because he had never used _that _voice while talking to her. She was finding out her ex had a lot of different voices today and not just the one he had been using towards her while dating.

Warning bells started to go off and she realised she had to stop the call before it got totally out of hand.

She shot up from her seat, not giving any more than a seconds thought to her protesting head, and basted her way between the small table and Morgan's legs.

Out in the alley, she reached for Hotch's phone. "Give me the phone!" she told him and held out her hand for him to put the phone in.

"What?" Hotch asked. Now he was even more confused than before. Never had anyone of his team members told him to give them his phone.

"_I hear she's there with you. I hope I didn't interrupt something," _Dylan snarled sarcastically.

"Give me the phone Hotch!" Emily ordered, panic tainting her voice.

Hotch looked at her outstretched hand and then back at her face. When he saw the rising panic in her eyes. he did as he was told.

With the phone in her hand she walked over to the toilet. She tried to keep her voice as low as possible, hoping the team wouldn't hear her side of the most likely awkward conversation she was about to have on her Boss' phone.

"Dylan?!" Emily asked as she put the phone to her ear. She asked mostly to confirm that it was him and not a random stranger she was about to give a scolding fro calling like this.

"_And now she cares to talk! I have been calling you all day!"_

Emily ignored his comment about her not answering his calls and moved on to the real question. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"_I'm trying to make sure my girlfriend's Boss doesn't sexually harass her anymore!"_

Where the hell had he gotten that from?!

"For God's sakes Dylan! That's never happened!" Emily took a deep breath. "I don't know what's gotten into you or how you got this number but you seriously need to stop calling. I already told you, _we are over!"_

"_Emily there are two persons in a relationship and the decisions being made affecting that relationship should be made by both of those persons. Not just one who thinks she can dress up in stripper's wear and whore around! I'm willing to give this relationship a second chance–"_

Emily's temper was on it's edge. The anger she had longed for earlier in the shower was now at her possession and now she had to control herself in front of the team.

"You're a piece of shit you know that, huh?" Emily cut him off mid sentence. "I'm going to hang up now and I don't want you to call any member of this team ever again. Do you hear me?!" Emily shouted as loudly as she could without drawing too much attention to herself.

Not that she thought she didn't already have it but a girl can always try.

"_And now she's all bossy! I think someone should spend a little less time on her Boss' couch and some more time with her boyfrie..."_

Emily hung up before he had the time to finish his sentence.

* * *

><p>Even thought Emily had tried her best to be as discreet as possible, the others had put two and two together and come to the conclusion that it was Emily's ex on the phone.<p>

Hotch felt he really needed to talk to her about what her ex had accused him of but wasn't sure how to bring it up. One thing he knew for sure was that it was time for Emily to tell the team the whole story and let them help her with the problem. He wasn't about to let her solve this problem on her own as he knew she would prefer, not after Doyle.

After the Doyle incident Hotch had felt guilty over not picking up the signs.

He should have realised something wasn't right when Emily was late for work. That woman was always on time and the reason for her being late would have been humongous.

He should have seen she had started to bite on her nails again.

He should have seen the dark circles under her eyes from staying awake all night.

He should have seen the way she reacted to the case where whole families were slaughtered.

He should have seen the signs and offered his and the team's help. Because that he knew for sure, the team wouldn't hesitate to assist Emily trying to solve her problem. On this team, no one was alone in their fight.

* * *

><p>After ending the call Emily made her way back to the rest of the team and was met with five pair of eyes. Those eyes told her that she hadn't made a successful job in keep her conversation private.<p>

"I'm sorry about that," Emily said and handed over the phone to Hotch. "I blocked his number so he won't bother you again and I'll have Garcia block it from everyone else's phone to make sure he doesn't bother any of you."

She made her way back to her seat and slumped down with a sigh. All eyes were still on her and she was starting to feel uncomfortable so she decided to close them to avoid their stares.

Unfortunately, she was forced to open them again as Hotch spoke to her.

"Emily, I think it's time you tell us the real story." Hotch made a small pause before continuing. "Not just pieces of it, the whole uncensured one."

She knew this would come but that didn't make her any more ready for it. Was she ready to tell the team about how she had lied to them for over three mouths when she told them she wasn't in a relationship? Was she ready to face their pity as she told them about how she had thought she loved him and then got her hopes literally smacked out of her? Maybe she could leave that little detail out, that she was in love with him. They didn't have to know, it's just a small detail to the story. Nothing important to understand the concept, she argued.

"Emily," Hotch urged and she realised she had been sitting there staring out the window without giving any sign of life except her constant breathing and blinking.

"Fine," she signed and improved her composure.

"About three weeks after JJ and Will's wedding I was out picking up some lunch for the team. Then two orders was called out at the same time and I went to the counter to pick up mine, or ours that would be."

Everyone sat quiet as they listened to what she told them.

"As I was standing there, a man came to pick up the other order. I didn't pay him much attention to him until he gently touched my shoulder and told me our orders must've been mixed up because he didn't order a chicken sandwich," she said and glanced at Morgan who later became the real owner of that sandwich.

"We traded meals and talked some more. He then gave me his card and told me to give him a call if I ever wanted to grab some coffee."

"What's his name?" Reid chimed in his question. "You keep referring to him as 'he'."

"Dylan," Emily answered without developing any further, such as a last name and age.

"Then what happened, I get that you called him and went for coffee but when did you two get serious?" JJ asked, feeling that she needed to get all the answers to the equation.

"It wasn't until three months ago we started getting serious. Everything was going fine until yesterday, or today or whatever you want to call it," Emily rambled and made a dismissive motion with her hand.

She was referring to the fact that she had had her encounter with Dylan after midnight but it could still count as the day before since she hadn't slept in between.

"You've had a boyfriend for three months and you didn't tell me?" JJ asked, feeling hurt.

JJ thought Emily's trust for her friends had gotten better after Doyle but now it seemed like she still kept most things to herself.

Emily felt bad for not telling her friends about Dylan but now she was glad she hadn't. She could only imagine their rage towards him and was glad they didn't know him. Having it like that it was harder for them to interfere and get themselves into more trouble than they needed.

"I'm sorry, JJ," Emily apologised and JJ could tell she was sincere. "But if you look at it now, it's better that you don't know him."

"Well, I'm not so sure about that. I wish I did know what he looks like so that I could give him the treatment he deserves," Morgan growled, clenching and un-clenching his fists.

He got a warning look from Hotch but didn't care for it. Every time he looked at Emily's banged up face he felt rage consuming his body. He wanted to find the bastard and show him what the consequences of treating his partner like a punching bag was.

Hotch brought the conversation back to it's origin. "So what pushed him over the edge? Because I take it he hasn't hit you before?"

Everyone dreaded for the answer, fearing that this might not have been the first time.

"No, he hasn't," Emily quickly assured the team.

"And I honestly don't know what made him change," she sighed. "He was the perfect boyfriend, brought me flowers, took me out to nice restaurants, treated me with respect and never did he raise his voice towards me. That's until yesterday of course when he broke in to my apartment by convincing my neighbour to open for him, started lecturing me about what to wear, drink and do and then went all crazy on me."

The jet fell silent as the profilers processed the new information.

Emily enjoyed the silence but it didn't last for long as Morgan cleared his throat and started talking.

"Emily, how did you get that gash on the back of your head?"

The question had been bugging ever since he found out about it but he hadn't gotten the chance or the time to ask her. He was sure Dylan was the reason behind it but he needed to know _how _it happened. Did he hit her with an object or did he push her down the stairs? He needed to know haw much pain he would inflict on the man once he found him.

Emily turned her stare out the window as she tried to fight off the feeling of shame. She should have been able to protect herself, she's a freaking FBI agent for God's sakes!

But hurting the people you love is so much harder than kicking a criminal's ass, even if the person you love is hurting you.

It is also a matter of pride, you're not going to show yourself week by not fighting back but you are also not willing to sink to the other person's low level and treat them the same way they are treating you. It is a fine balance between the two and Emily chose the second one.

As she answered Morgan's question she made sure to keep her head high and not show any sign of weakness or embarrassment. "He pushed me into the wall and my head hit the frame hanging on it."

Emily registered how Morgan's hands turned in to fists and how his knuckles became white. She also registered the sign of pity in JJ's eyes and Reid's sad ones.

Glancing at Rossi, she could see he too had some trouble controlling his anger but he did a better job than Morgan at concealing his struggle.

Hotch just looked back at her, not letting her read him and when she met his gaze, she was doing the same thing.

She had put her walls up and Hotch could see that. He decided that it was all for now. The things Dylan had said to him over the phone was made for a conversation between just the two of them, not the whole team.

"Thank you for telling us," he said sincere as he knew how hard this must have been for her.

"Well he didn't really give me any room for anything else than an explanation, calling you like that," Emily said with a hint of sarcasm, looking away out the window.

"You know you can always talk to me if you feel the need to," Hotch said and tried to regain eye contact with her.

Turning her head away from the window to him she answered. "Yeah, I know. Thank you."

She even allowed herself to smile. It was her second genuine smile that day and it felt good. Here, surrounded by her colleagues, she felt safe and for the first time since her ordeal with Dylan, she let herself relax.

"To all of us," Morgan elaborated as he reached out for her hand and gave it a supporting squeeze.

Emily turned to him and smiled, squeezing his hand back. "I know."

* * *

><p><em>AN: So that's it people. I hope you liked it and next time the team will be arriving in Utah. Wonder what kind of troubles are waiting from them there... Check in to find out!_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Hi guys! I'm so glad that you're liking my story. The reviews really motivated me to get some writing done. As for this chapter, a new era begins as the team arrives in Utah. Let's see what can go wrong here..._

* * *

><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

* * *

><p>The jet touched ground one hour later and the team made themselves ready to continue their journey to the local Police station in their SUVs, which stood waiting for them at the airfield.<p>

In between further discussion of the case, Emily had managed to call both Garcia and her neighbour regarding Dylan. The first call went to her neighbour who very remorsefully apologised for letting Dylan inside Emily's house. Emily didn't elaborate what had occurred while confronting him about it, instead she had politely asked him to contact her before letting anyone else inside her home in the future. He had assured her he would.

Her conversation with Garcia hadn't gone as smooth as the her first call. After repeatedly questioning Emily about the reason for her rather unusual request to block a certain phone number from the team members' phones, Garcia had finally made Emily spill her guts.

At first Garcia had acted like Garcia. She started to freak out and began rambling about wiping out Dylan's credit cards but Emily had, after quite some time, managed to get Garcia to calm down and as she did, she luckily abandon the thought of erasing the money on Dylan's credit cards.

When Emily had hung up, Garcia had still felt an unease about how Emily were handling the whole Dylan-situation but she had early upon Emily's arrival to the team, learned that there was no point in arguing with that woman once she had made up her mind. Garcia had decided to let go of it for the moment, but only for the moment, and had returned to her task of complying a list of known locations for the victims.

* * *

><p>First off the jet was Rossi, followed by Reid and JJ. Morgan was next to leave the airborne transport and closely behind him was Emily who, at the moment, had a less persistent headache. Thankfully, the Tylenol had finally started to work.<p>

Just as Morgan was about to step down the stairway, Hotch called for Emily. He looked back at Emily and she waved for him to keep going. He reached out his hand as a silent offer to carry her bag to the car and she accepted it, another sign that Emily Prentiss wasn't herself today. No matter how banged up that woman had been in her life, she never let anyone to baby her around without a struggle. Thinking of it, a specific moment came to Morgan's mind.

Emily had just been released from the hospital after being rushed off from a car crash. The crash had been caused by their UnSub who had forced another man to run the car transporting the UnSub off the road, the car in which Emily had been.

Unfortunately, their UnSub had escaped and Morgan had found Emily by the side of the road, bloody and suffering from a concussion.

He had rode with her in the ambulance and waited for her in the waiting room while the Doctors had examined her. As he had waited, he had heard her arguing with the staff before he even could see her. When he had heard her arguing, he had walked over to her and put the poor nurse out of his misery by offering to take over the wheelchair.

Of course Emily had complained about it and argued that she could very well walk but Morgan had made her stay in the chair, telling her how he liked pushing her around.

That was a true example of how the independent Emily Prentiss wouldn't allow herself any assistance.

After his walk down memory lane, Morgan walked out of the jet and left Emily and Hotch alone.

* * *

><p>"Yes?" Emily said as she turned back to Hotch.<p>

"I wanted to talk to you about before but I didn't want the whole team to be listening in."

"I'm really sorry about that," Emily apologised and began to feel uncomfortable. What was it he wanted to talk about that he didn't want the team to hear?

Hotch wasn't sure how to approach the subject and decided that it was best not hover around it and move straight on to it. "When Dylan called me, he accused me of mistreating the women on my team. He also accused me of sleeping with them."

Emily felt her mouth fall open as her brain registered what Hotch told her. She couldn't believe her ears! But on the other hand, everything Dylan had done and said during these last two days had come as a chock to her.

She didn't know how to respond but finally managed to close her gaping mouth. How do you respond to something like that? She settled on doing what she had already done so many times today, she apologised.

"I'm so, so sorry! I don't know what's wrong with him and I don't know how but apparently I have or is sleeping with every man that has ever looked at me. I am so, truly sorry!" Emily uttered in a sincere voice.

Hotch's answer wasn't what she had expected to hear. "Emily, I didn't ask to talk to you because I wanted an apology from you, though I do appreciate it. I wanted you to know what he told me and to tell you that quite frankly, I'm a little bit worried for you. If he's so convinced you're cheating on him, I think he might be dangerous. What if you happen to end up alone in the same room as him? I know that you're a more than capable Agent but both you and I already know what he can do when he is angry. I just don't want to see you get hurt again," Hotch said, a concerned look plastered on his face.

Emily was moved by his concern and kind words but she was also determined to let Hotch know that if something like what he described happened, she could handle herself. She didn't need looking after.

"If I ever end up alone in the same room as him again and he makes a move for me, I'll keep my promise and put a bullet to his little ones," Emily said, without any amusement.

She had used that same threat against Doyle when they had 'met up' for coffee late one night after he had tracked her down. She had never told anyone about the meeting, except for Tsia and Clyde, because she was afraid of what the others would think of her.

She knew it had been a dumb move in which Doyle easily could have taken her out right then and there but on some level she knew he wouldn't. He had spent his time as a 'free' man, tracking her down with only one mission in mind; to make her suffer the same way she had made him suffer. By hurting the ones she loved.

After Emily's explanation of what would happen, Hotch looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. He had no doubt Emily could handle herself. Sure, Dylan had managed to throw a few punches at her but if the fight had continued Emily would most likely had been the one still standing.

"Then let's not keep the others waiting," Hotch suggested and picked up his bag.

As soon as Hotch had ended their little talk, Emily made a go for the exit.

By now she was furious at her ex for making a scene and accusing Hotch of such horrible things. She was trying to mask her anger but it showed in the way her jaw stiffened and on her determined steps towards the exit.

Outside, the bright light hit her eyes and made her head hurt. Along with the pain, her anger against Dylan increased. Because of him, she couldn't even step out in the sun without pain radiating through her body.

Emily fumed down the stairway and over one of the black SUVs where Morgan was standing, waiting for her and Hotch to arrive.

"What was that?" Morgan questioned as she was within hearing distance but close enough to him that he didn't have to shout. Inside the car, Rossi had already made himself comfortable and watched as the scene between the two Profilers played out.

JJ and Reid had buckled themselves up in the second vehicle and was engaged in a discussion about the teeth of children while waiting for Hotch to take the driver seat.

Hotch made it to the car approximately at the same time as Emily made it to the one Morgan stood leaning against, waiting.

"That was the latest reason for me to murder my ex," Emily fumed, jerked up the door to the passenger seat and hopped in.

Different reasons for why Emily would want to murder her ex-boyfriend started to fill Morgan's head but he soon gave up, realising she wouldn't tell him even if he asked. Instead he placed himself in front of the steering wheel and put the key in the ignition.

Inside, Morgan could see Rossi eyeing Emily from the backseat. He couldn't blame the man for doing so since he knew the reason behind those glances was a good one. It was for the same reason Morgan casted sideway glances at her while drove the way to the station, they were both worried about her.

* * *

><p>During the ride to the police station, Emily caught Morgan glancing at her more than once. Even though she did notice, she kept her gaze out the window and ignored them.<p>

* * *

><p>Entering the Police Station, the Agents could tell something was up. Officers were rushing from one desk to another, balancing coffee cups and case files in their hands.<p>

Occasionally they bumped into each other and as they did, some coffee escaped from their cups. When that happened, the persons involved quickly apologised and went to retrieve some paper to clean up the mess.

Standing around one of the desks were five men dressed in formal Police outfits. They stood closely next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, hovering over something the team couldn't make out. Thought, from the looks of it, it was something important.

In the middle of the chaos, a tall, muscular man made his way towards the rooted Agents.

"You must be the BAU," he stated as he reached them. "I'm Detective Thomas Moore and I'm the lead Detective on this case."

The Detective was a blonde man with sky-blue eyes. From the lack of distinct wrinkles on his face, Emily estimated him to be in his mid thirties to early forties.

The Detective's eyes darted from one Agent to the next one, memorising their faces.

Emily made it a mission to stay in the background as much as possible, hoping that by doing so, she would keep the attention away from her and her injured face. A banged up Agent may not be the best way to create a first impression of the BAU, she reasoned.

"Thank you for having us," JJ said and took a step forward, holding out her hand for the Detective to shake. As they shook hands, JJ introduced herself and started the routine presentation of the team.

"This is our Unite Chief SSA Aaron Hotchner and this is SSAs David Rossi, Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss and Dr. Spencer Reid."

As she introduced them, each Agent offered their hand to the Detective, except Reid who settled with giving him an awkward wave. He had never been a big fan of shaking hands.

As JJ said her name, Emily couldn't stay in the background anymore and had to step forward to follow the guys example and offered her hand to the Detective. As she did, she saw how his eyes widened slightly upon seeing her bruised cheek and split lip.

"I'd hate to see the other guy," Detective Moore told her as he shook her hand.

Emily smiled at his comment and shook his hand. She was starting to like this Detective. Grateful that he hadn't made a big scene out of it, she sent him a silent thank you.

Morgan, who was impressed by the man's cool, started thinking.

The Detective's comment had him wondering if Emily had fought back during her fight with Dylan. Had she given him injuries similar to the ones she had? Or hadn't she fought back?

If she had fought back, Morgan realised he probably should be worried about the dude's condition since Morgan knew what Emily was capable of. Their time together in the gym had showed him that she didn't lack competence in neither combat or wrestling.

Even though he knew he probably should express some kind of concern for the dirtbag if she had fought back, he couldn't. The only feeling surfacing when thinking about Dylan and what he had done, was anger.

Morgan then caught himself thinking about how it would feel to throw a punch at him. To land a fist in his face. Or maybe send his elbow flying to connect with Dylan's nose. The crack when his nose broke would fill Morgan with satisfaction. Only when thinking of it, his fist clenched and his jaw went rigid as if his body was preparing for the fight. No matter how wrong he knew it was, he wanted to make the man pay for what he did to Emily. He guessed it was the protect-your-parter-no-matter-what-instinct that was surfacing.

Morgan, lost in his thoughts, was brought back to reality when the Detective cleared his throat. If the time was right and if he got the chance, Morgan would ask Emily about it but for now, he realised his focus was needed on the case.

"As you can see, there's a small chaos in here right now and the reason for that is our perp. Another map was delivered to us with a photo of the missing woman he has kidnapped which he, most likely, intends to make his next victim," Moore informed them.

"How long time ago was the latest map and photo received?" Hotch asked as he tried to create a picture of their time frame. In matter of kidnappings, time was alway a delicate factor.

"The desk clerk told us the envelope got here approximately two hours ago," the Detective answered.

"That gives us ten more hours to work with," Hotch stated while nodding his head. "Do you have a place where we can set up?"

"Sure, we have a conference room at the end of that corridor," Detective Moore said and pointed at a short corridor, walls painted in a light yellow colour. A single painting was hanging on the wall, picturing a fisherman trying to win the tug of war between himself and the fish. It was a really a nice picture, Emily observed as she looked in the direction the Detective was pointing.

"A whiteboard and a coffeemaker is already placed in the room among with some information regarding the case such as notes from interviews and evidence collected at the different crime scenes," the Detective told them.

"I'll send in some of my men who's been studying the map to help bring you up to speed on the area. If you need anything, I'll be right out here trying to get an ID on the latest victim," he finished.

"If you don't mind, we could handle the identification of the woman. Our Technical Analyst back at headquarters have access to better equipment than you do here. No offence," Hotch said. He knew if he put Garcia on the task, they would have an ID much faster thanks to her resources and skills.

Luckily, the Detective wasn't to proud to accept the help. "None taken," he answered. "My first priority is to find this woman before she ends up like the other ones. And if your way is faster then mine, then so be it. I'm grateful for all the help we can get."

"Hopefully your skills and my mens' knowledge about the area around here will be the solution to finding this sicko before he kills her," he then added.

"I agree," Hotch consented.

As Hotch communicated with the Detective, Emily struggled to stay awake. The lack of sleep was starting to take its' toll on her and she could feel her eyelids getting heavier for each minute that passed by. She rubbed her tired eyes in an attempt to get rid of the tiredness but had no luck. She then turned her hopes to coffee, praying that the combination of caffeine and something to let her brain work with was going to keep her awake for the next hours.

The team started moving towards the conference room and Emily quickly followed. Walking made her head pound with every step, despite her taking the aspirins not too long ago. Apparently they hadn't lasted for long and she concluded that it was time for her to take a new dosage if she was going to get any job done. Thankfully the team hadn't checked in to the hotel yet which meant that she still had her bag with her, containing the pills.

* * *

><p>The conference room was a relatively small room with a table placed in the middle. The walls were painted in the same colour as the corridor leading to the room. On two of the walls, the colour was exchanged for a window and gave the Agents a view of the street outside.<p>

Their focus was shifted from the windows to the table. The detective had been truthful to his words, on the table stood boxes containing material from the case and at the rear end of the table was a whiteboard stationed. To Reid's delight, markers in different colours were laying at the base of the board.

While Reid's attention was on the markers, Emily's was the coffeepot standing on the small table next to one of the windows. Standing there and looking at it, she didn't know how she had managed to survive without coffee for almost eighteen months.

The stress she had felt from constantly looking over her shoulder, afraid Doyle might find her, combined with her fear of him might finding Declan, had caused her to develop an ulcer. To avoid agitating it, her Doctor had suggested she quit coffee, much to her disapproval but she had done it anyway.

The first week had been the worst but after a while she had gotten used to the decaf she gulped down every day. Now, she wanted nothing more than to let the caffeine do wonders to her weary body.

"Anyone want some coffee?" she asked as she put down her bag next to the chair closest to her and shrugged of her jacket.

"Yes please!" JJ exclaimed while rubbing her eyes. Getting back home from celebrating Hotch's birthday, JJ and Will had enjoyed each other before falling asleep. Due to their time spent together, she hadn't gotten much sleep before she received the phone call about the case.

"I thought you quit that stuff," Morgan said to Emily with a frown. She had personally told him she had quit caffeine at the same day as had he lied to her about how she had to do ten hours of takedown and arrest procedure to re-certify because of her absence.

She had later confronted him about it, after talking to Hotch, and that was when he had confessed to her that he had only told her because he felt like he needed some reassurance. He needed to know that he could handle being out in the field with her without worrying too much about her.

"I did but if I'm gonna be able to keep my eyes open for longer than a minute, I need caffeine," Emily told him and turned to the coffeemaker. "Anyone else want some?"

"Uhm, I do," Reid told her from across the table, standing in front of the whiteboard.

"Why does that not surprise me," Emily smiled as she turned to start brewing the coffee.

"When was the last time you slept?" Hotch asked as he had listened to her comment about keeping her eyes open and then recalled how she had walked in to the briefing room, dressed in the same clothes as she wore during his birthday dinner.

Emily, not sure what time of the day it was, brought her left wrist to her sight. The watch that usually was fasten on her wrist was missing and Emily realised it was still laying at home.

When dressing up for occasions, she rarely wore her watch but left it on the counter by the door. The reason for doing so was because most of the time, it didn't go well with her outfit. Since she had rushed off to the BAU still dressed in her attire for the festive evening, the watch had never left its' place on the counter this morning.

She took a quick look at her right wrist just to make sure she hadn't put it on the wrong one while being in such a hurry as she had been. When looking at it, the only thing circulating her wrist was a dark bruise. Unfortunately, she was only wearing a t-shit which meant she had no sleeves to pull down to cover it. She sighed and went back to the chair to put her jacket back on, she didn't need the local Police nor her team to see any more of her injuries than they absolutely had to.

Emily saw the puzzlement on the Profilers' faces as she put her jacket back on, only minutes after taking it off.

"It's cold," she lied.

Nobody believed her since the room had a very comfortable temperature.

Emily ignoring their looks and hoped that Hotch had forgot about his question. Unfortunately, he hadn't.

"Prentiss, the last time you slept?"

"Mm, right," Emily began. "What time is it?"

Hotch glanced at his own watch before answering. "It's eleven am."

"Then it was a while ago," Emily stated, not caring about counting the hours. She then continued working on the task of getting the coffee ready.

Everyone in the room had heard the conversation between the two and they were once again reminded of Emily's dispute with Dylan. The mood in the room shifted to one filled of unease.

Rossi detected Emily's signs of discomfort as she once again became the centre of attention and decided to take it up on himself to lighten the spirit in the room. He also hoped that by doing so, he would reveal Emily from some of her discomfort.

"Why don't you just brew a large pot and those who want some can have it," he suggested. "I don't think the station is going to get mad at us for brewing too much of their crappy coffee."

A smile spread on his face as he watched his comment about the distasteful cop-coffee have the desired effect. The air in the room felt a little bit lighter and he saw Emily's tense shoulders relax a little.

Satisfied with his accomplishment, Rossi began working on emptying the boxes, placed on the table, of their contents.

In seconds, Hotch was at his side, helping him and slipping one box to JJ. She too started to pick up its' content as Morgan flipped open a case file and started reading.

Once in a while, Morgan let his glare drift over to where Emily was standing, handling the coffeemaker. He then let it linger for a few seconds before he returned it to the file in his hands and kept reading.

After his fifth time of doing so, he caught Rossi doing the exact same thing. When their eyes met, they shared a mutual expression; worry.

Minutes later, Hotch, JJ and Rossi had unpacked all of the boxes and their content was now laying sprawled all over the table.

Looking at the mess they had created, Hotch decided it was time to begin organising their respective tasks.

"Reid, I want you to stay here and work on a geographical profile," he gave his first order. "Rossi and JJ, I want you two to hit the road and start interviewing people on known locations for the homeless, maybe somebody saw or heard something. Morgan, I suggest you and I take a trip to the morgue while you, Prentiss, stay here and work on victimology."

He received an irritated look from Emily, who was eagerly gulping down her coffee as she made her way to the table.

Emily didn't want to stay put at the station. She wanted to be out in the field, running down possible leads and interviewing the homeless. She knew creating a profile while being at the station was a task just as important as being out on the streets but right now, sitting in a chair, reading files while trying to come up with a profile made her feel trapped. She wanted to be outside, to feel the air and her face and drive the car to different locations.

Even though she felt a desperate need to be somewhere else but here, she decided it might be for the best if stayed at the station. She did have a headache, which by the way was pushing her to the verge of nausea, and the station was where the coffee were.

Hotch suspected Emily guessed he had intentionally kept her out of the field because of her injuries. Either that, or she was uncertain of if it had just been a coincident. Nevertheless, Hotch was relived when she choose not to argue his decision.

What the others, nor Emily, didn't need to know, was that he had in fact given her the task intentionally. He couldn't send her to interview the homeless because they might not trust her because of her appearance. She might scare them off.

Even though he knew she was tough and a master at compartmentalising, he didn't have the heart to send her to look at the dead bodies. Looking at them, even thought some of them were practically nothing more than a bunch of burned bones, it would be like staring at her reflection the a mirror. They were victims of a crime and so was she, even though she refused to admit it to herself. He didn't feel comfortable with sending her there, not right now at least.

So that left him with her remaining at the station, working on victimology.

Hotch knew he would have to put her in the field some time during this investigation because frankly, she was one hell of a shooter and Agent. He couldn't deny her skills and he had the feeling this UnSub wasn't about to go down without a fight. Hotch suspected that during the takedown of their UnSub, he needed all members of his elite team to participate.

The others started moving and spur into action after he had given them the orders. He wasn't late to follow and collected his belongings before he rose from his chair.

Walking out the front door of the station, accompanied by JJ, Morgan and Rossi, Hotch left two of his finest Agents to do what they do best, to get inside the mind of their UnSub.

* * *

><p><em>AN: That's all for this time. I would love to hear what you think of the story so far. Right now, I'm trying to build the foundation for the case and I hope I'm not boring you. I promise, more action is coming later on. I hope to see you next time!_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Okay, so here we go. Another chapter done and I don't really have anything else to say except happy reading!_

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><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

* * *

><p>As the others left the station, three Officers entered the conference room ready to get to work. Emily had her back to them but she was still the first of the two remaining Agents in the room to notice their arrival. Blame it on her CIA training or her dead beat boyfriend but her senses were on high alert. Reid was too engaged in putting stickers in different colours on the map, marking the different crime scenes and taking sips of his coffee to notice.<p>

Emily, who by now was on to her second cup of coffee, turned around and faced the Officers. Due to her headache and lack of sleep, she was in a bad mood. A few minutes ago, she had swallowed two aspirins along with some water and was now patiently waiting for them to take effect. She hoped that the men standing by the doorframe would be of the cooperating kind, but her hopes were crushed seconds later when one of the Officers spoke.

"Man!" the man exclaimed upon seeing the injuries done to her face.

His outburst irritated her and did nothing to enlighten her mood. She couldn't stop herself from snapping at him, even though she had been expecting that kind of reactions during her stay.

"Something bothering you?" Emily snarled at his comment and turned to face him. She was a freaking FBI Agent for God's sake! As one, you are suppose to get a few bruises and cuts during your career. Seriously, she couldn't be the first one with bruises working in law enforcement the Officer had seen.

Opposite her, three men stood. Two younger and one older. Emily did the math regarding the oldest age by adding his wrinkles to the effect the sun had had on his face during the long hours outdoors had done to him and guessed he was somewhere in his early to late forties. The other two looked to be in their late twenties, maybe mid thirties. By the look of the one who had spoken, he wasn't used to others snapping at him. The youngster showed an expression of pure chock.

"Real smooth," the Officer standing next to the youngster, whispered.

"And how about you? Something you want to share with the rest of us in this room?" Emily asked, glaring at the other young Officer.

By now, Reid had detected the Officers arrival to the room and realised that the first introduction hadn't gone well, so to speak. Emily actually looked like she was ready to smack the two younger Officers' heads together. Afraid she might do so, Reid took a few steps nearing the small crowd created at the other side of the table. Fortunately, he didn't have to pry his friend and colleague away from the two youngsters as the third Officer spoke up.

"I'm really sorry," he started to apologise. "These two never know when to shut up."

Emily sent the first one of the young Officers a last warning glare before turing to the polite older man. Refusing to let her headache and crappy mood ruin the day for the others, she decided to turn the atmosphere in the room to a better one. Her irritation for the two Officers hadn't vanished but she choose not to dwell on it.

"It's okay," Emily assured the older Officer. "He's not the first time a man who has trouble keeping their eyes off me," she then added with a smile and a wink.

Her joke had the wishful effect and the tension in the room quickly eased as they all laughed.

"Maybe a proper introduction would fit now?" the older Officer said with a smirk on his face. Emily's joke had been one matching his humour.

"I totally agree," Emily said and smiled. "I'm Agent Emily Prentiss and this is my colleague Dr. Spencer Reid."

As she introduced Reid, she let her hand travel in his direction.

"Nice to meet you both," the Officer said and shook Emily's hand and then gave Reid a quick wave.

Reid did the same, thankful to avoid shaking hands, and flashed one of his boyish smiles.

"These two Nut Balls here are Officers Richard Hale and Stewart Anderson," the man said while pointing at respective man. Emily learned that the Officer who had had such a pleasant reaction to her face was Officer Stewart Anderson. "As for myself, my name is Harold Bunch."

After the introductions were made, Officer Bunch asked the real question. "So where do you want us?"

"I take it at least one of you is familiar with the area?" Emily questioned even though Detective Moore had told them that he would be lending them some of his most suitable men regarding the area and this case.

"Yeah, I grew up and have lived here my whole life so it would be a shame if I didn't," Officer Bunch answered.

"Good, then I want you to help out Dr. Reid over there. He trying to come up with a geographical profile and it's always easier if you're familiar with the area."

Reid nodded his agreement as Bunch looked at him.

"And what exactly is a geographical profile? How's creating one going to help us catch this crook?" the man in question wanted to know.

Reid decided that this was his territory. He started explaining to the Officers how this kind of profiling could help them locate the UnSub's comfort zone and how that would help them catch him. He also told them about how to come up with these comfort zones while showing them the areas of different colours he had painted on the map. After being briefed about the subject, Officer Bunch made his way over to the map and eagerly started working along with Reid.

The other two Offerers remained by Emily's side as she asked them to help her to get an insight of the places where the victims were last seen, but also on the crime scenes. The Officers gladly gave her the information she requested and whenever she felt like she had to brainstorm with someone, they happily offered themselves to act as her sounding board.

In the middle of discussing how their UnSub had managed to kidnap his victims without anyone seeing him, Emily's phone started ringing. She picked it up and saw it was Hotch calling.

"Hey Hotch, you're on speaker," Emily answered as she pressed the speaker button. "Officers Bunch, Hale and Anderson are here with me and Reid."

"_I just wanted to tell you that Garcia has finally completed the list I asked her to and I'm currently sending it to you. Also, Morgan and I are done at the morgue and about to drive off to the crime scenes. You've come up with something we should be aware of before taking off?"_

Pondering his question, Emily remained quiet for a few seconds.

"Well, I think Reid and Officer Bunch is pretty much done with the geographical profile for the moment and it looks like our UnSub is all over the place. We can't seem to find a comfort zone, at least not with the reference points we have right now. Also with the help of Officers Anderson and Hale I have concluded that the UnSub either is a regular at the street where the victims were snatched from, or he has an appearance that allows him to blend in since no one noticed him taking the victims."

"_Thanks Prentiss. We'll keep that in mind as we head off. You can expect us to be back in less than four hours. Maybe the list will help you come up with a working geographical profile," _Hotch finished off the call.

As Hotch had informed her of, the list Garcia had put together about the victims known locations showed up on the screen of her phone. She wrote down the places and gave the list to Reid before she settled back in her chair and continued working on their profile.

* * *

><p>The hours quickly vanished and so did the coffee. By now, Emily had lost count of her cups of coffee but her mind still craved for. The coffee hadn't been as effective as she had hope in the matter of making the tiredness disappear. Her body, on the other hand, had a different opinion to her extreme consumption of caffeine. Her stomach stung from the strong, foreign liquid it wasn't used to anymore. In the back of her mind she knew drinking coffee, especially cop-coffee, wasn't a good combination with her still healing ulcer. She then recalled she had skipped both breakfast and lunch. Drinking the beverage on an empty stomach made the whole ordeal even worse. She cursed herself for not thinking about that earlier, if she had she would have made sure to have eating something before she started gulping down the coffee. To make a point, her stomach started to growl.<p>

At the other end of the table, Reid picked up on Emily's stomach's cry for food and felt the same emptiness in his own. Fortunately, had picked up a sandwich on the way to the BAU as breakfast but that didn't stop him from noticing the lack of lunch.

"Should we order something to eat?" Reid suggested upon hearing Emily's stomach and felling the emptiness in his own. He glanced at his watch and then added. "The others should be back in about half an hour which gives us enough time to get something before they arrive. We could order for them too."

"Yeah, sound good to me," Emily said and turned to the twins as she had started to refer Officers Anderson and Hale as. "Are there any good places around here where you could get a decent meal without having to spend a fortune?"

"There's a place a few blocks down that's pretty good. Serves hamburgers, sausages, fish and chips among other things," Officer Hale answered.

Emily looked at Reid with questioning eyes.

"Works for me," he told her.

"Same here," Emily said and rose from her seat. Her back ached from sitting slouched over the table for so long and her legs gladly welcomed the change of position.

"I need a break so I don't mind getting the food. How about you?" she asked Reid. "Do you want to join me or do you want to stay here and keep working on the profile?"

"If you don't mind, I would like to finish reading these reports about the crime scenes," Reid said and pointed at the files that lay scattered at the table around him. "I find it really unusual for this UnSub to lack a comfort-zone," he added with a frown.

"No problem," she assured him.

"I think my guys and myself also is in need of some food," Officer Bunch told Emily.

"Well, then why don't we carpool. It's easier since I don't know they way," Emily said as she put on her jacket.

Officer Bunch nodded his agreement.

"I would like a hamburger with fries," Officer Hale called out his request.

"The same for me," said Officer Anderson seconds later.

Emily's theory about the Officers being twins in some alternative universe was starting to look more and more credible.

"How about you Genius?" Emily asked.

"I think I'll take the fish and chips," he said. "Oh and could you get me a milkshake if they have any?"

The way his eyes glistered with excitement reminded Emily of a child on Christmas Eve, waiting for Santa to arrive with the presents. This brought a smile to her otherwise rather worn face. "Sure. Which flavour?"

His eyebrows knotted as he pondered the question, desperately trying make up his mind and come to a decision. His choices were banana, vanilla or chocolate. At last, he settled on chocolate.

After memorising the orders, Emily and Officer Bunch left the police station together their next stop being the diner. When she had made herself comfortable in the car, Emily called the others and scribbled down their orders on a blank page of her notepad.

* * *

><p>The worker at the diner had politely ignored Emily's banged-up face and quickly made their orders. When Emily and Officer Bunch arrived back at the Police station, the rest of the team was seated around the table alongside the Officers. Reid was still engrossed in his reports of the crime scenes and Rossi and Hotch could be seen involved in a discussion. Morgan and JJ were currently engaged in the map the killer had sent the station along with the twins.<p>

"I bring nutrition," Emily said as she walked into the conference room, holding up the plastic bag containing their food.

"Your a life saver!" JJ exclaimed and rose from her chair to help Emily with the food.

Together, they handed a take-away box to each Profiler and then sat down with their own. The one most exited about the food was Reid, hence to the milkshake Emily had brought. Emily herself was mainly thankful for finally having something to put in her aching stomach.

After a few minutes of silence and rapid trips with forks from box to mouth, Hotch spoke up. "This may disturb the meal but in order to be able to save this woman, I think it is important to discuss what information we have endured during these hours spent apart."

Morgan leant back in his chair and put the box of food to rest on the table. "The coroner told us that from the tissue left on the bodies, he had come to the conclusion that the victims were still alive when the bombs went off," he only paused to take a sip of his water. "The most intact body, the one of Nick Ice, showed no sign of bruising or injuries that would indicate a struggle. Also traces of chloroform could be found in his system, such as in the other bodies were you could still attract some tissue to test. Those facts together left Hotch and me thinking that the UnSub attacks his victims when they're least expecting it and that he uses chloroform to subdue them. And by that, we must assume that our killer is physically fit enough to carry a unconscious body of at least 200 pound, the weight of our second victim Tom Scully."

The others nodded their agreement as they ate of their food. By now, they were all used to discussing murders while eating and the fact that it wasn't bothering any of them bothered all of them.

JJ was the next to report what Rossi and she had learnt from talking to the victims' families.

"The fact that they all were addicted to some type of drug was common knowledge among the families," she began. "When questioning them about it, three out of four told us that they had tried to get their loved ones into rehab but they all refused. Our youngest victim, Nick Ice, had been sent off, even though he refused, to a summer camp focusing on rehabilitating young people. While staying at the camp, Nick managed to escape and started living on the street instead of going back to his family. We had Garcia check the summer camp for any weird vibes but she came up empty. She also searched for any record of our other victims staying at the camp but found nothing. When we asked the families if they recognised the other victims, none of them told us that they did. It doesn't seem to be any real connection between the victims that can be linked through the families. The only resemblance seems to be that they were all users and that they was snatched while living on the street."

After speaking for such a long time, JJ allowed herself to gulp down some of her drink.

"How about the fact that victim number two and four went to the same school?" Emily questioned, after she had searched her memory for the single connection she knew they had.

"The school didn't seem to serve as a big factor in either Tom's nor Nick's lives which makes us believe that it's nothing more than a coincidence. Neither of the men spent much time in school and by that, we shouldn't assume it's a reliable lead. But we can't look past it either," Rossi answered Emily's question.

Emily, satisfied with Rossi's answer, moved on to telling the team what she and Reid had come up with. "As I told Hotch on the phone, our UnSub doesn't appear to have a comfort-zone which is very unusual. Also, from the fact that the UnSub is choosing bombs as weapons, combined with some other elements, we've come to the conclusion that the UnSub must be a male."

"I'll have to agree with you on that Prentiss," Hotch said. "Women usually doesn't choose such a messy way of killing, their weapon of choice is often some sort of poison. Also when visiting the crime scene of Tom Scully, Morgan and I had to walk at least two miles to get to the portable toilet where he was held captive and then later killed. By that, we have to assume the UnSub had to do the same, add a 200 pound body to that and we have someone really strong. With the terrain and the extra weight, I highly doubt a woman would pull that off. Not even an extremely fit woman."

The other had no objections. It is common knowledge that men have the ability to build more muscles than women and therefore Hotch's statement couldn't be seen as sexist which 'boys are stronger than girls' often were.

After some further discussion, Hotch decided it was time to move on if they should be able to get to the kidnapped woman in time. During their reports of what they had come up with, Garcia had called and given them a name to their missing woman. Charlotte Banks had now been missing for eight hours which left them with four more before they would find her most likely torn apart by the bomb.

A few last remarks and comments were made before Hotch decided it was time.

"I think we're ready to give the profile," Hotch finished off their discussion and stood up.

* * *

><p>The team had moved out to the jungle of desks and people. As they lined up in front of a whiteboard, they stood looking out at an ocean of policemen and women, quietly waiting for them to enlighten them with their so called profile for this killer.<p>

At this moment of the day, Emily was used to all the staring but she still got irritated when she caught two Officers whispering to each other while glancing her way. She was forced to drag her eyes away from them when Hotch started to give the profile. Since she was about to take over the briefing from an other team member and start where they left off, she couldn't let herself get distracted by the immature Officers.

"We believe the UnSub is a white male in his late forties to early fifties," Hotch started to inform the audience. Many whom could be seen writing down the words escaping his mouth. "He needs to be physically fit to be able to carry his victims for a long distance. This we know because Tom Scully, victim number two, was found inside a portable toilet located in the woods where no roads created for vehicles exists. He ambushes his victims and eliminates the risk of them putting up a struggle by drugging them with chloroform."

Rossi was the next one to speak. "For this UnSub, the thrill isn't in the actual killing but in the chase. By providing us with maps and pictures of his victims, he is challenging us to prove us better than him by saving the victims before the bomb goes off. Every time we fail, he sees it as a win. In other words he is playing a game, trying to prove that he is above all of us. A game where lives are at stake."

His finish line reminded everyone of the seriousness of the situation. During the time he had spoken, Rossi had made sure to gain eye contact with the sea of Police workers. By doing so, he hoped to make sure they understood the importance of his words.

"He has a dull appearance that keeps people from noticing him. Because of his looks, he can come and go without anyone paying too much attention to him or even remembering him," JJ said, picking up where Rossi left.

It was now Emily's turn to speak. "We do know he's got a big ego. By playing us, he thinks he is above the law. He probably grew up in a family where bad behaviour didn't resulted in any type of punishment. Also, we think this UnSub either have worked in law-enforcement or at least attend law-school. His hate towards law-enforcement is most likely based on how he failed law-school or felt unappreciated for the work he did as an Officer of the law. What we know for sure is that he's no longer neither of those. If he ever worked as an Officer of the law, he either got fired or quit because of something that happened at work."

Like he had so many times before, Morgan knew exactly where to start. "By sending us the maps and pictures of the victims, he's challenging us to let him prove that he's better. He even thinks he is so much better he's giving us a head start by providing us with those clues. He's doing so to even out the game. If he's caught in a stand-off, he won't hesitate to take his own life while at the same time making sure to take as many lives with him as possible. If a stand-off do occur, we will make sure to let him think he's the one pulling the strings. When he thinks he's in total control is our best chance to get him. Don't be surprised if the only way to do so is to take him out."

Each Profiler had taken a step forward while speaking and now it was Reid's turn. As he stepped forward, Morgan stepped back leaving the audience to him.

"Hence the variety in geographical locations, we assume he has a vehicle to transport his victims in. This vehicle needs to be big enough to fit a unconscious person but small enough to avoid attracting any type of unwanted attention. A GMC or a newer Buick model are possible suggestions. Also. this vehicle needs to be able to drive in different terrains without enduring too much damage. A damaged vehicle draws attention to it."

"That is all for now," Hotch informed the men and women who had patiently listened to them. "Our main focus right now is to find our missing woman Charlotte Banks. If you by any chance cross paths with the UnSub during her attempted rescue, do not pursue a chase alone. This UnSub is highly dangerous and by going after him on your own, you won't only risk your own life but also the life of others. Thank you for listening."

As soon as Hotch finished talking, a choir of mumbling voices filled the room. The audience stood from respective seats and returned to their individual tasks.

The Detective who had welcomed them when they first arrived walked up to the Profilers still standing in front of the desks.

"Wow, that was really impressive," he acknowledged upon reaching them.

"We're just doing our jobs," Morgan voiced.

"Well, a hell of an impressive job you got then," Detective Moore said. "How about the location of where he is holding...Charlotte is her name right?"

Rossi nodded his yes.

"Have you come up with a location where he might be holding her?"

"Not yet but we're about to sit down with the map he sent us and contact out Technical Analyst. Hopefully, that will help us narrow it down," Hotch informed the Detective.

"Then don't let me stall you," Moore said and waltzed off to check up on the work of his men.

"Let's get back to the conference room," Hotch ordered the Profilers and started walking while at the same time dialling Garcia.

The others quickly followed his lead and left the small chaos created in the jungle of desks. When the Profilers got to the conference room, they all grabbed the closest file and started skimming through them, hoping to catch a lead while waiting for Garcia to call them back with what she had come up with.

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><p><em>AN: So what do you think? I hope you're liking the progress of the story and I promise the pace will pick up during the next chapter. Don't hesitate to leave me your thoughts in the nice little review box below :)_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Hi! I'm back with the next chapter. As I promised, the pace will pick up a little in this one and it's also time for the wonderful Oracle of Quantico to make a comeback, it's been a while since we last really talked to her. I would like to wish you a happy reading and I hope you like what I have written!_

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><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

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><p>They had just made it in time to watch the abandoned garage explode. The force of the explosion had flung pieces of wood and metal their way and they had been forced to take cover behind their vehicles. After the blast had subsided, they rose and looked at what was left of the burning garage.<p>

They silently cursed themselves for not figuring out the location sooner, but neither of the Agents uttered a word about how they just had lost yet another victim to their UnSub. Everyone knew there was no way the missing woman had survived the explosion but they had still made their way over to the garage to study what was left of it.

They had remained at the crime scene for a total of three hours. During those three hours, people had arrived to and left the scene. The ambulance had been sent back since no one was in need of emergency care. One of the twins, Officer Hale, had managed to get hit by a piece of wood during the explosion, but he was soon back on his feet after getting checked up by one of the paramedics at the scene.

As Officer Hale had been treated, the fire fighters had arrived and worked effectively on putting out the fire. When the former garage had been cleared, the Agents had been allowed to enter along with the local Coroner who had arrived to the crime scene. The Coroner's initial statement had been that the explosion was the cause of death and that the dead woman showed signs of having been restrained before coming face to face with death.

The Coroner had kept on observing the body and made some notes then later cleared it for transport back to the Morgue. The Agents had watched as the body was wheeled away on a gurney. They had all paid their respect to the deceased by standing quiet as the gurney had been rolled past where they were standing. When the body was safely inside the Morgue's van, they had returned to observing and analysing the scene before finishing up themselves.

The drive back to the hotel had lasted for an eternity, at least that was how Emily had experienced it. In reality it only took about twenty minutes for the team to drive back to their stay on the lightly trafficked roads.

* * *

><p>Emily fought her heavy eyelids as she walked through the hotel door and closed it behind her. Tiredness had consumed her weary body and she was moving on auto-pilot. She removed her holster, containing her gun, along with her badge and put them on the night stand. As she did, she tried to remember the last time she slept. Was it two days ago? No, that didn't sound right. Three? Maybe, she wasn't sure but it felt more like three days than two. The harder she thought about it, the fuzzier her memory became as her brain cells tried to work out her timeline. With a sigh she gave up trying and went to the bathroom to use the toilet and brush her teeth.<p>

Standing in front of the mirror, she put her toothbrush in her mouth and looked at her reflection. What she saw made her shiver. Her eyes were red rimmed. Underneath them she had two prominent black circles that she doubted she could make go away even if she had had unlimited access to concealer. She let out a frustrated sigh before moving on to study the rest of her appearance.

Her hair was pulled back in a messy pony tail, or more like what used to be a pony tail. She had put it up in such a hurry that she had missed to pull the band hard enough for her hair to stay in place. Studying it now in the mirror, she saw that strains of hair had gotten lose sometime during the time since she left the station and was now hanging down her neck. They were accompanies with some more loose strains that were framing her face. Her examination of her appearance was interrupted by a unexpected wave of pain originated from the left side of her mouth.

She had, without a second thought to her swollen cheek and injured lip, brushed her teeth with the same force as she usually did and now, she was facing the consequences of it.

As a reflex her hand went up to her cheek as if protecting it from the pain and she could feel the warmth radiating from the injury. Inside her mouth, the all to familiar taste of blood was spreading and when she spit out the foam, it was pink instead of light blue as it usually was.

She scholed herself for not being more careful as she analysed the damage she had done to her wound. The cut on her lip had now re-opened and blood was flowing freely from it. She cursed at herself for making that happen and hoped that it wouldn't take as long to stop the bleeding as it had the first time. She quickly finished brushing her teeth with a more gentle pressure, then tore off a pice of paper, put it to her lip and applied a light pressure.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she made her way to the bed and threw off its cover. Usually, the beds at the hotels in which they stayed in varied in comfort but right now she didn't care if it was comfy or not. In fact, she would probably be happy with sleeping on the concrete floor of a basement right now, as long as she got to sleep.

After finishing the task of making the bed undone, she sat at the edge of it and went on to removing her shoes. As she bent forward, she could feel the blood rushing to her head and the pounding she had had for the last couple of days increased once again. She only managed to get off one shoe before she had to sit back up to lessen the pressure the blood caused her head.

She sat like that, staring at the wall, which was lacking any type of decoration, and let her mind go blank. She knew that if she started to think about these last couple of days' events, the walls she had built up would come crumbling down, so she simply sat there trying not to think about anything at all.

She slowly let the gravity do its work on her eyelids and she felt them closing only to later be opened again. She let herself get to the verge of consciousness before returning to the world of the living with a jerk.

She let this procedure go on for a while until she thought the better of it and decided to give up on preforming the same task on her other shoe as she did the first one. She simply settled with kicking it off, damage be damned. Once out of her shoes, she didn't care to remove her clothes and change into pyjamas before crawling under the covers. Before she could let herself go out like a lightning bulb, she made sure to set an alarm to assure herself that she wouldn't be late the next morning. Only then did she let herself drift off to oblivion.

* * *

><p>Morgan had just exited the shower as he heard the familiar sound of his ringtone. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he made it back into the bedroom and fetched his cell from where he had left it on the night stand the night before. Wondering who would call him at such an early hour, he checked the caller ID before answering. It read unknown. With a slight frown on his face, he pressed answer and put the phone to his ear.<p>

"Morgan," he answered formally.

What met him on the other side of the line wasn't something that could be placed in the same category as Morgan's greeting.

"_So black girls not good enough for you now, Agent?" _Was what met him on the other said of the phone.

Morgan's frown deepened as he listened to the caller.

"Who is this?" he demanded to know.

The caller totally ignored his demand and kept on talking.

"_Felt the need to upgrade to some white chicks now, did you?" _The voice on the other side of the line was filled with venom.

By now, the caller was starting to get on Morgan's nerves and he let some of his emotions show in his voice as he spoke his next sentence.

"Look, Man, I don't know who you are or what you want and but obviously have a problem so I'm gonna let this slip for now. And I seriously suggest that you get some help and that you double check the number before you press the call button next time."

"_Oh no, no, no I don't have the wrong number. You see, you are the person I wanted to talk to." _The caller only paused for a second before continuing. _"And you are right, I do have a problem. I have a problem with you screwing around with women who doesn't belong to you."_

Morgan was just about to scholar the man for his accusations when he was cut off by the caller.

"_Now, I hope you listen real carefully because I'm only going to tell you this once. STAY AWAY FROM EMILY!" _

After that, the call was disconnected and Morgan was only met with silence. He held his cell in front of him and ended up staring at it for quite some time before putting it back on the night stand.

He was pretty sure the man who had just called him was Emily's ex, Dylan. He would never forget the name of the man who had used his partner as a punching bag and gotten away with it unscratched, as far as he knew. But Garcia had supposedly blocked his number on the phones belonging to each and every member of the team. Did she forget to block it on his phone? Or had she made a mistake while blocking it, leading to an unsuccessful blocking? No, Garcia doesn't forget or make any mistakes when is comes to technology, Morgan thought. Having excluded those options, the only other one Morgan could come up with was that Dylan had bought a new phone and/or changed his number.

Dylan. That son of a bitch had the nerve to accuse him of sleeping with Emily. Well, it wasn't the accusation itself that bothered Morgan the most. It was the fact that Dylan seemed to believe that he and Emily was still in a relationship even though she had told the team that she had broken up with him. Had she lied to them? Moments after that thought crossed his mind, Morgan felt guilty. No, she wouldn't lie to them. She trusted her team and wouldn't risk anything like that again, not after Doyle.

What that left him with was even more disturbing. Her telling the truth meant that Dylan seriously believed that he and Emily were still in a relationship. Morgan's worries for his partner grew as he came to this realisation. He really needed to talk to Emily about it.

* * *

><p>Emily woke up with a strangled cry and in cold sweat. Her trembling hands went to the scar at her stomach while at the same time, her wild eyes scanned the room for any threats. Seeing none, she tried to relax and forced herself to take deep, even breaths.<p>

Moments before, she had been back in the cold wearhouse floor just about to get stabbed with the table leg. But this time it wasn't Doyle holding the leg as it had been in all those nightmares before, this time the table leg was in the hands of Dylan.

In her dream, the positions had been reversed to the once in reality. Instead of her standing over Dylan, Dylan had been hovering over her with a sinister smirk of his face. She had felt his icy stare bore holes into her and it had made her blood run cold. Moments before the table leg made a hole in her stomach, exactly like the one Doyle had created almost a year ago, Dylan locked eyes with her and his evil smile grew wider.

As the table lag was plunged in her stomach, Emily found herself unable to look away from Dylan's eyes. Her mind was screaming at her to look away but her body didn't comply. Still holding her gaze, Dylan leaned forward until his mouth was by her ear and Emily could feel his breath against her cheek. Seconds passed, seconds that felt like hours to her, before he whispered: _You're mine, Emily_.

That had been when she woke up, those words still ringing in her ears and her heart racing. _You're mine Emily, you're mine Emily, you're mine... _

By now, she had manage to calm herself down and was able to remove her hands from her scar only to touch her bruised cheek and cut lip.

With her mind running wild, she felt the remains from her last encounter with Dylan and questioned herself why she hadn't kicked his ass for what he did to her. It was a stupid question to ask herself since she already knew the answer to it; she didn't want to inflict the same pain on him as he was inflicting on her.

Deep down, she still had feelings for him. Feelings that had started small and then developed for months. Feelings that would take a while to get rid of, she concluded. Even though she didn't want to have these feelings for him anymore after what he had done, she couldn't make them go away.

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><p>When she entered the doors of the Police station, she had put her fears from this morning and her unwanted feelings for Dylan in a box and shoved it as far back as possible in her mind. She walked inside with only one thing in mind; coffee.<p>

The nightmare had resulted in an uneasy sleep and she barely felt any more rested than she had the night before.

To get to the station she had carpooled with Rossi and JJ. As she walked with only one purpose in mind, she found them taking the same path. Emily wondered if they had gotten themselves a good night's sleep or if theirs', too, had been plagued by nightmares.

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><p>Morgan arrived to the station half an hour later with the other half of the team. He, on the other hand, had another purpose in mind than coffee when he walked thought the doors of the station. He needed to talk to Emily about the phone call he had received this morning.<p>

The first place he looked for her was in the conference room but when he got there, he was told that Emily had headed for the vending machine down the hall. After fetching a cup of crap coffee, Morgan then pursued his journey in that direction with his cup in hand.

Moments later, he spotted her. As he got closer and closer to her, he noted her tensed shoulders and the way she was rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands. He hoped that she had managed to get some sleep last night but looking at her tired demeanour, he doubted it.

"Hey Em, you got a minute?" Morgan asked as he approached his partner standing next to the vending machine, just fetching a chocolate bar from the holder.

"Hey, yeah sure," Emily answered as she started to peel off the wrapper from her candy bar.

After unwrapping her chocolate bar, she turned to him and once again he was filled with rage for the man who had hurt her. The force in which he was gripping his cup of coffee increased and he had to remind himself to keep his cool.

The bruise on her chin had become a shade darker and the cut on her lip looked like it hurt like hell. He couldn't see the injuries done to her wrists as she wore a long sleeved shirt today, but he still knew they were there. And then he remembered the wound on the back of her head, the one that had left blood on his hand when he had examined her head.

While these thought kept running through his head, Morgan also considered how to broach the rather sensible subject of Emily's ex calling him at such an early hour only to accuse Morgan of sleeping with her.

He guessed he must have been quiet for quite a while when Emily felt the need to speak up.

"What's up?" she asked and looked expectantly at him, wondering what he wanted ot talk about and what was keeping him so quiet.

"Well..." he never made it further as he caught the sight of Hotch walking towards them with a stern expression.

Emily snapped up on Hotch's presence and they both turned to him, waiting to find out what had caused the tensed expression on his face.

"We're gathering in the conference room now!" Hotch told them when he was close enough for them to hear.

He only finished his sentence before he spun around on his heels and walked back in the same direction as he had come from.

Hotch had never been a man of words and the tone he used now, combined with his abrupt way of telling them to assemble, only made the Agents realise that something major had come up in the case.

They both started walking and Emily turned her attention back to Morgan. They had a little time before reaching the conference room and Emily opted to continue their previous conversation. "You were saying?" she asked in an attempt to make Morgan begin the conversation where he had left it, just about to tell her something that was clearly bugging him.

Realising that the time it would take for them to get to the conference room wouldn't be enough to discuss the matter, Morgan shrugged and decided to wait until the time was right instead of rushing it. "It's nothing important really," he lied looking over at Emily. "We can talk about it later," he then assured her with a smile.

Emily, who had gotten the feeling that he had wanted to talk about something important, felt the need to really make sure that it could indeed wait. "You sure?" Emily asked to confirm.

"Yeah, let's get in there and see what's got our Boss Man so riled up," Morgan said and held up the door for Emily to go through.

She smiled her thanks as she walked thought the door and then walked over to the table where she pulled out a chair and sat down. Morgan followed her example and as they were the last to arrive to the room, Hotch started speaking.

"After we had left the crime scene yesterday, one of the techs found a valuable piece of the bomb which they, during the night, analysed at back at the lab."

To make sure everyone was on the same page, Hotch brought up a picture of the piece found at the scene on his tablet and showed it to the team. Morgan, having worked with bombs before, took a special interest in this piece of evidence and leaned forward to get a better look at it.

"Is that what I think it is?" Morgan asked as he reached out for the tablet and zoomed in on a particular spot.

"If what you mean is are those scratches a part of a signature, then yes your right," Hotch said. "They have also collected enough parts of the bombs from the different crime scenes to get an idea of how the bombs are wired and manufactured."

At this point of the conference, everyone was leaning forward to get a better look of the signature Hotch and Morgan were talking about. Morgan pointed it out for them to see and then they all saw it clearly.

Morgan was just about to ask the obvious question but Hotch, predicting he would do so, moved forward onto revealing more information about their most recent lead.

"I had Garcia do some digging into the worlds of bombs and their makers and she found a few possible matches, two looking slightly more interesting then the others." As he had been speaking he had dialled Garcia's number and was now waiting for her to pick up.

"_What can I do for you my furry friends?"_ Garcia greeted them as she picked up.

"Garcia, I need you to tell the others what you told me before," Hotch said, putting his hand on the table and leaning over it towards the phone placed in the middle it.

"_Well, as you probably know out Fearless Leader had me checking the things that go boom and the sickos that find pleasure in creating these type of horrible things. Anyways, this is what I've come up with. Out of the possible 32 people my initial search gave me, I narrowed it down to 15 by eliminating those who are rotting in jail and those who aren't on US soil at the moment. I highly doubt our Sicko is flying in and out of the county every time he's going take another innocent life..." _Garcia started to trail off.

"Baby Girl, you still with us?" Morgan asked as she became quiet on the other end of the line.

"_Oh that's right. I'm sorry! Where were I? Oh I remember!" _Garcia answered her own question before anyone else got the chance to do so. _"I cross referenced those 15 people with the profile you've created and came up with five possible suspects. I also let the once with unknown identity, meaning that they don't have an ID to go with the signature, stay on our list. So, to summarise, I have made a list of five people in which two are unknown identities. Meet number one."_

A photo of a white middle aged man popped up on the tablet and caught the Agents attention.

"_The man you're seeing right now is a forty two year old man named Stuart Lockwood. He is currently out on parole for blowing up cars in his neighbourhood. Apparently, his first intentions was to be on the other side of the law but when he failed to get in to the Police academy, he switched sides. I guess he then realised his mistake because since he got caught, he has appeared to be a model parolee. He checks in with his parole officer at given times and at the unauthorised visits to his home, they have found no material required for bomb making. More information about him can be found in the file I'm faxing over right now."_

The fax machine in the room roared to life and brought everyones attention away from the conversation for a few seconds. A new picture then popped up on the tablet and their attention was drawn back to it and Garcia.

"_The next one in our pool of suspects is former teacher at the Police Academy Bill Clemons, age forty eight, currently working as a garbage man in Salt Lake City. He used to turn to alcohol after working-hours and it was during one of those that he got arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. After he lost his job, his life continued the downward spiral. He was convicted of arson and animal abuse and was sent to jail for six years. Apparently, this pleasant man enjoys setting coworker's houses on fire and strapping bombs to animals only to film the explosions and later analyse how the anatomy of the animals changes the exact moment the bomb goes off. Do I even need to express my feelings for this man? No, probably not, but I will do that anyway. I think he is horrible and that he deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life!" _Garcia informed them.

She took a deep breath to calm herself down and then her tune once again filled the conference room. Exactly like before, a new picture could be seen on the tablet as she started talking about possible UnSub number three.

"_Lucky number three on our list is former prison guard Michael Samson. His superiors thought he took a little too much interest in the inmates convicted of murder. It seems that the other guards on shift often found Samson outside a cell, eagerly listening to how the inmate described his killings. After getting fired he then went out and committed his own murders. He is now convicted of killing four people by placing a bomb beneath a school bus. The casualties connected to this crime was the bus driver, a thirty year old dad of two toddlers, and three middle school kids. For this heinous crime he got twenty years without parole. He was convicted when he was thirty two which would make him fifty two today. Unfortunately, those twenty years have been served three moths ago and today Michael Samson is a free man." _

This time the picture popping up on the tables was just a black silhouette with a question mark in the middle, surrounded by a white background.

"_As I mentioned before, we also have two bomb makers with unknown identities who turned up as a possible match for the partial signature and structure of the bomb," _Garcia told them._ "The first unknown identity, let's just call him or her Twisted Mind number one, made bombs that were used in association with environmentalists protesting outside a laboratory in which a make-up brand I've never heard about is extracting their products. Thanks to Twisted Mind number one's failure in bomb making, there were no causalities but one of the workers ended up in the hospital as a result form being sent flying into a brick wall by the blast."_

The last picture looked exactly like the one the just saw, except for a change of colour in the background. This time the background was grey.

"_And last but not least we have unknown identity number two who I now dub Twisted Mind number two. The story of this fellow is a little more grotesque than Twisted Mind number one's. Twisted Mind number two created a bomb, which he or she decided to deliver by mail. The receiver was then met by a rather unpleasant surprise as she opened her mail and got blown to pieces. The envelope containing the bomb was opened at her workplace and therefore the bomb also killed one of her coworkers and injured another," _they could all picture Garcia shivering as she relayed that fact. _"You may have a delightful time reading through the files on these wonderful people. I'm now going to watch a video of baby pandas playing and hopefully that will make me forget about the horrible images I have created in my head from reading about these peoples lives. Ciao!" _

The phone call ended and everyone focused on Hotch as he went to grab the papers Garcia had faxed them. He then returned to the table, papers in hand, and sat down in a chair.

"Okay, everyone let's grab a file and try to exclude as many possible UnSubs as you can," Hotch said as he put the files in the middle of the table.

Each Agent then reached out for one, flipped it open and started reading. Due to it only being five files, JJ and Morgan had to read together. Luckily, they read approximately in the same speed so it didn't turn out to be a problem.

Minutes passed as the team read about the lives of Stuart Lockwood, Bill Clemons, Michael Samson and Twisted Mind number one and two.

"I think we can exclude Michael Samson," Emily spoke up after a few minutes.

This caught everyones' attention and they abandoned the task of reading so that they could listen to Emily's thoughts.

"How come?" Rossi questioned.

"During his time in prison, he got stabbed by another inmate and ended up with a permanent injury to his left shoulder. I highly doubt he would be able to carry the victims all the way to the secondary crime scenes with a not fully function shoulder," Emily declared.

Hotch nodded his agreement. "I think you're right Prentiss. Let's make a pile of the excluded suspects over here," he said and pointed at a spot on the table "and one with the still possible over here." This time he pointed at another spot on the table.

"I find it unlikely that Twister Mind number one, the one associated with the protest against the laboratory, could be our UnSub," JJ said as Morgan nodded his head in agreement. They had both come to the same conclusion after reading the file.

Now everyones' attention was to her and Morgan.

"I think the bomb was made to make a statement or as a way of expressing his or hers feelings about the way the laboratory produces its products." JJ made a small pause before continuing. "If this was our UnSub, I would think he or she would target the laboratory's employees or other people associated with the company, not homeless people who can't even afford to buy the make-up the lab is producing."

Heads bopping up and down could be seen around the table as everyone expressed their satisfaction to her argument. Since everyone seemed to agree with her and Morgan, JJ closed the file and put it on top of Michael Samson's.

"I personally can't find anything that indicates that Stuart Lockwood is our UnSub," Hotch began after the file had landed on top of the other one. "Neither can I find anything in this file that indicates that he's not. From what I've read about him, I still consider him a possible assailant," Hotch declared with his eyes locked on a page in the file. He then glanced up to assess the others' reactions to his words.

"He was the one who failed to get in to the Academy, right?" Morgan asked.

"That's right," Hotch replied.

"How come?" Morgan wondered.

"He barely passed his psychological test and then he flunked out on the physiological. He was immediately declared as unfit for police work."

"That could be his primary trigger and the reason for him to start blowing up the cars in his neighbourhood," Rossi concluded and the others showed various sings of agreement.

The room felt silent for a minute before Reid spoke up.

"You said earlier that you couldn't find anything that indicates that he could be our UnSub nor anything that makes it possible to cross him off the list. If you'd like, I can take a look at the file and see if I find something you missed," he offered, directing his words towards Hotch.

"Two pair of eyes is always better than one," was Hotch's response to the younger Agent's suggestion. He then leaned over the table and handed the file on Lockwood to Reid. "What have you come up with from reading about Clemons?"

Reid, who had placed the file he recently received on the table next to his coffeecup, was just about to answer when the door to the conference room violently opened. The Agents' heads whipped around as it did and they could all see Detective Moore standing in the doorway, looking startled.

"Sorry to interrupt but the station just received another envelope containing a photograph of a teenage girl and a map and this time he also sent us a recorder containing a message."

Hotch was the first person to rise and the others quickly followed. "Where is it?" he then asked, a stern look on his face. The UnSub was escalating. They only found his previous victim yesterday. If his escalation was because the FBI was had arrived or if they had agitated him by almost saving Charlotte, Hotch didn't know. What he did know though was that this wasn't good. Not good at all.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Okay, so Dylan is back and our bad guy has claimed another victim. Wonder how this is going to play out... Please leave me a review with your thoughts. Reviews motivates me, of course, but it also gives me a sense of what you readers like and/or what you don't like. I hope you've had a good time since you last found your way here and hopefully I'll see you guys next time!_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Hello! Thank you to those who reviewed my last chapter, I appreciate it. Now I'm back with the next part of this story and hopefully you'll like it. Happy reading!_

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><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

* * *

><p>The landscape outside the racing car was beautiful but none of the Agents took any notice. Both of them sat quiet, lost in their own thoughts while at the same time preparing themselves for what to come. Gruesome images materialised in front of their eyes and they both knew that the chance of finding their latest victim alive was slim.<p>

With the latest victim, much had changed. First of all, the UnSub had changed victimology. The girl they were on their way to try to save right now wasn't a runaway teenager living on the street. She was a fourteen year old, C-student living in a middle class home with a loving family. His change of victimology hadn't made sense to any of the Agents, neither to the Detectives and Officers at the station.

Secondly, he had changed the time range in which the Agents were suppose to find the girl and save her. Before, they had had approximately twelve hours, now he had given them eight. According to the recording the UnSub had sent them, along with the map and the photo, this was his way of upgrading the game.

As they kept driving Emily's thoughts went to that recording they had played after following Detective Moore to the front desk where the envelope had been received. The envelope and its content had been examined for prints or any trace of DNA by the techs but they had come up empty handed, just like with the others.

The words of their UnSub kept running through Emily's mind.

"_Hi guys! You find me so hard to catch that you call in the big shots? The F B I. One of their elite teams, nothing less. Well, seeing you fibbies was a blast, don't you think?" _The voice had taken a pause to laugh at its own joke before continuing in a serious matter.

"_Now on to business. Now that I have seen how the elite work, I know what to expect. By the way, I have to admit I'm impressed. I clearly underestimated you when I first heard you were brought in. Only too bad you didn't get there minutes before, then the woman would be safe at home by now. Too bad, too bad..."_ the voice had mocked them._"But that's life my friends; you can't always win. Anyhow, since the local Police decided to change the game, so have I. You will now only have eight hours until the girl will get what I like to call well done. Let's see who is the winner of this round, shall we?"_

The voice had been altered with some help from a voice scrambler, therefore there was no chance to use it as a reference in voice comparison against their suspects at the moment. What kept the Agents' hopes up was that the recording had been sent over to Garcia and they were all wishing that she could work some of her magic on it.

Emily was abruptly brought back to the present when Morgan accelerated. He pressed his foot against the pedal, forcing it closer to the floor of the car which caused Emily to reach out for whatever she could find to stabilise herself. Whatever she could find turned out to be the top of the glove compartment and her seat belt. When then Morgan drove the vehicle out of its former orbit by making a sharp turn to the left, the grip Emily had on the objects hardened.

Ten minutes ago they had been back at the station, frantically trying to come up with a location to where their UnSub might be holding his victim. It was Reid, not to their surprise, who finally had managed to narrow it down to three possible locations. By then their deadline to find the missing woman was almost upon them, making it impossible to search one separate location at a time so Hotch had split the team into three and ordered them to get to their cars as quick as possible while at the same time grab a few Officers to help them with the search. The ambulance and bomb squad were suppose to wait on stand-by, approximately in the middle of all three locations until one of the groups called for them. They would then head off in the direction that the call had come from.

After recovering from the drastic turn Morgan had made, Emily glanced in the review mirror. She searched for the Officers tailing them in a squad car on their way to the possible location but she couldn't spot them. She reasoned that they hadn't been prepared for Morgan's rapid change of direction and had probably not had the time to even register the turn before it was to late.

After a total of sixteen minutes the Agents had arrived to the location. It was a remote house in the middle of a forest with no neighbours in a five mile radius, a prefect location for a killer to bring his victims to. The house they suspected the woman to be held in looked like it was about to fall apart. The front door was ajar and the windows were cracked or broken. The yellow paint that had once covered the house was long gone and now only flakes remained. The roof was covered in rotting leaves which had been delivered to it by the trees surrounding the house. The stairs leading up the the front door were missing steps and on the porch, pots, which had once contained flowers, had cracked because of the cold the winter had provided a few moths ago, or previous years, Emily didn't know.

Morgan and Emily exited the vehicle, their bulletproof vests already strapped on, and looked at the house. The Officers hadn't yet come to arrive to the location and knowing that their time was limited, Emily came to the conclusion that if they were about to enter the house, they would have to do it without any back-up.

"How much time do we have until the bomb is suppose to go off?" Emily asked looking at her left wrist, forgetting about her lack of watch. When she found none, she let out a frustrated sigh.

Morgan on the other hand, had his watch on and checked the time before answering. "If the Detective who found the map got it right it should leave us about fifteen minutes but I wouldn't count on that, so pretty much any minute now."

He looked up from his watch and caught Emily's eyes. What he saw in them was the same emotions as his own reflected; unease, determination, hope and if you looked really closely you could see a hint of fear hiding behind the other emotions.

"I'm willing to go inside," Emily stated and turned her gaze to the house. The sunset had started and she had to hold her hand above her eyes to avoid getting blinded by the sun.

The possibility of them saving the woman that may be inside made her fear of getting blown up smaller. Sure, it was a possibility that this might be the last minutes of her life but she had accepted the possibility of dying while on the job a long time ago. Right now her main concern was for the woman that might be inside the house she was now gazing up on. She was prepared to risk her own life to possibly save another. She turned her gaze back to Morgan as she waited for him to respond to her latest statement.

"So am I," he responded and that was all she needed to hear before setting off in a sprint towards the house closely followed by Morgan all while drawing their weapons.

They reached the porch in matter of seconds and Morgan nodded for Emily to take the lead. She edged the barrel of her gun in the gap between the door and the doorpost before opening it. As she did, the door creaked and both Agents hoped that if the UnSub was inside, he hadn't heard it.

What met them on the other side of the door was a dark living room filled with dusty air an no UnSub. Emily quickly scanned the room and silently cleared it before moving on to the next one. Morgan was walking closely behind her all while turning the knobs of the closed doors they walked by.

The next room turned out to be the kitchen which held a stair up to the second floor. Emily gestured for Morgan to ascend the stairs and got a small nod back in confirmation. She heard the stairs creak under his weight and once again she hoped that the UnSub wasn't lurking on them in a dark corner.

She moved on to complete her task of searching the kitchen and came up with nothing but an itchy nose. The dusty air was much worse in the kitchen than it was in the living room. Emily guessed it must be because of the slightly opened door in the living room which allowed fresh air to swirl inside the room once in a while.

Next on her to do list was checking behind the closed door in the kitchen. She placed herself in position and raised her gun to shoulder hight before opening the door with her left hand, gun resting steadily in her right.

The room was practically pitch black due to the lack of windows and Emily had to wait for her eyes to adjust before stepping inside.

It was a small room containing mostly shelves which made Emily assume the space was used for storage. On the shelves she found boxes labeled differently which confirmed her assumptions. It took no more than thirty seconds to clear the storage and she had soon found her way back to the living room again were she looked for any more adjoining rooms.

She was just about to open a door she found next to the bookshelf when she heard Morgan calling for her. She abandoned her task and hurried up the stairs, always staying alert to any drastic movements or anything feeling like it was out of place because one thing you quickly learned while working in law enforcement was to never let your guard down. The nice old lady with a lost kitten could very likely be the one laundering money in her basement, or the lost teenager could be the guy who recently beat up one of his friends over drugs. The point is, whenever you are on the job, never let your guard down.

At the top of the stairs Emily thought she heard a muffled sound but when she tried to locate where it came from, she wasn't successful. She ended up calling Morgan's name to locate which room he was in and when she finally found him he was crouching down by a chair. In the room she also found the source of the muffled noise she had heard before.

In the chair the teenaged girl they had been locking for, Emelie Johnson, was sitting with tears running down her face and a cloth covering her mouth, muffling her screams for help. When Emily had entered the room the girl's gaze had moved from watching Morgan, struggling to undo the knots tying her legs secured to the wooden leg, to Emily's. Emily looked into the girl's slightly unfocused bright blue eyes and thought that they looked very much like JJ's.

She then made a quick inventory of Emelie's state and concluded that their UnSub had aggravated. She could clearly see that Emelie had suffered at least one blow to the head from the bump on the top of her forehead. She also had a couple of bruises and cuts on her arms as well as her legs. Anyhow, the thing that really caught Emily's attention was the clean cuts on the girl's chest that wasn't covered in clothes. Apparently their UnSub had taken a liking for knives and had used Emelie as a carving board.

Emily's evaluation of the girl had only taken seconds and she was quickly brought back to reality by Morgan's voice.

"I just found her and we need to hurry! The clock next to her is showing six and a half minute and is still counting down!"

Emily raced over to his side and started working on the other knot that Morgan wasn't struggling with. As she did, she comprehended that she could have done a better job if she didn't have so damn short nails.

Ever since returning from France she had done her best to get rid of her nasty habit of biting her nails and had actually succeeded for quite some time. She had had a small relapse after the whole bank robbery thing when she feared for the life of JJ's husband, Will, and almost got blown up but she had soon gotten back on the right track. Since then, her nails had grown longer but not long enough to really facilitate the task on untying knots meant to stay knots.

When she finally got the rope off the girl's right leg, she moved on to attempting to free her right arm. Morgan had already started on the left one and she could see him throwing worried glances at the clock, still counting down their time left before the bomb was about to go off.

Emily didn't have as much problem with the knot tied around the girl's arm as she had with the one around Emelie's leg and she removed it just in time to see Morgan doing the same thing to the other rope formerly securing the girl's arms to the chair.

The girl, so relieved to finally be free, quickly stood up and yanked the cloth out of her mouth in the process. What she hadn't counted on was the sudden rush of blood to her legs and she ended up getting dizzy. She started to sway and Emily and Morgan quickly grabbed her, steadying her while at the same time silently communicating with each other.

They needed to get out of that house now if the didn't wish to become fried alive!

None of them vocalise their next move, they didn't need to. While keeping their steadying hold on the girl, they started to move towards the stairs. To steady the girl further, both Agents took a hold of the girl's waist and put her arms around respective neck. Together they kept the weak girl upright while walking down the stairs.

After descending the stairs Morgan realised that they would get out faster if he carried the teenager since they both would be able to run that way. He told Emily about his realisation and she agreed.

In one swift move, Morgan had the girl in his arms.

To make the whole thing easier for Morgan, Emily ran ahead and held the door open for him to race though before closing it and tailing him. They had just made it back to their car when they felt the blast from the bomb throwing them to the ground. The noise was overwhelming and for a few seconds both Agents experienced a loud ringing in their ears.

When they had regained most of their hearing they looked at the now burning house and then back at each other.

"You okay?" Morgan asked while letting his eyes travel her body, searching for any visible injuries.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Emily answered while letting her eyes do the same thing as his was. She couldn't find any sign of him being hurt, except a scraped knuckled on the hand still having a safe grip on the teenage girl. "You?"

"I'm all good," came his reply and Emily let her eyes wander back to the burning building.

As she did, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind made itself present. She felt like she was being watched. She let her paranoia take over and allowed her eyes to drifted across the surrounding area. They abruptly stopped when she spotted something black lurking behind a tree, not far from the house. She squinted her eyes to get a better look and realised that it was, in fact, a person.

"That sick son of a bitch is hiding behind the trees!" Emily exclaimed as she shot to her feet. In an instant, she started to run towards the lurking figure and as soon as she did, the figure started move too. Behind her she could her Morgan telling her to stop but she ignored him and kept running.

The ground connected with her boots as she continued to sprint towards the mystic figure and she had, once again, unholstered her weapon. With her gun in hand she jumped over stumps and rocks as she was pursuing her chase. A tree branch was in her way and she had to duck to avoid getting it in her face. She hoped that Morgan had radioed it in because she sure as hell didn't have time for that right now.

After some time, she lost visual of their suspect. She kept moving forward in hopes of spotting him again. By now the trees were placed further apart and she thought she saw a wooden bridge behind some branches.

She slowed down and brought up her gun. Her breathing was rapid from the fast chase and she tried to slow it down while walking close to the suspected bridge with cautious steps.

As Emily got closer, she got her suspicions confirmed. The bridge appeared to be very old and in a bad condition. The wood used to build the passage was in a suspicious shade of brown and Emily doubted anyone had used it for years.

The railing was made of wooden poles placed far apart and between them, rotting ropes hang. Emily guessed they were suppose to serve as banister but for the looks of it, the rope would more likely cause the fall then prevent it.

Emily continued moving closer and as she did, she got a vision of what was beneath the bridge. Approximately twelve feet under was a pond in a condition that reminded Emily of a mouldy soup. Green water slowly moved around and by the shore, a dead fish could be seen. From the smell of it, Emily's association wasn't to far off.

She slowly made her way over to the beginning of the bridge and tenderly stepped on it with one foot. The bridge creaked a little under her weight but it didn't break. She scanned the area around her, hoping to spot the suspect before placing her other foot on the bridge which she didn't.

* * *

><p>Back at the burning house, Morgan was frustrated with Emily that she had taken off on her own but he knew he would probably had done the same thing if the roles had been reversed. He wanted nothing more than to run after her and be her back-up during the chase but that wasn't an option at the moment. He glanced down at the girl still in his arms and knew he could never leave her alone after just rescuing her from getting blown up. He had to wait for back-up to arrive before he could run after Emily.<p>

The blast had scared the girl even more. Of that Morgan was sure because ever since they had been flung to the ground, tears had been running down her face. She hadn't spoken yet and Morgan thought of it as a part of her being in a state of shock.

He held on to the girl as he radioed in the latest event and told them to hurry. The others quickly responded and told him that they were on their way. He also managed to get a hold of the Officers who were suppose to be at the scene. They told him they had missed the drastic turn but had driven back and were now a minute away form the location. Morgan told them to hurry because his partner was pursuing a chase of the UnSub without back-up. The Officers understood the urgency and told him to hold on.

Accurate to their saying, a minute later the squad car arrived and the Officers ran his way.

During the wait, the girl had calmed down a little and stopped crying. She still hadn't spoken to him, even though he had tried to get her to talk by asking her all types of questions.

"I need one of you to stay with her and the other one to follow me!" Morgan barked out as the Officers approached.

Morgan then got to his feet and fetched his weapon before starting to run off into the woods. He could hear the steps of the Officer behind him and quickened the pace. His eyes searched the woods but he didn't see neither Emily or the dark clothed figure she had spotted behind the trees minutes before. Where the hell was she?

* * *

><p>By now Emily was almost halfway across the bridge and her all her senses were on alert. Where is he? she thought. It was like he had disappeared in to thin air.<p>

She kept turning around, scanning the path behind her before turing back. In front of her, nothing more than branches with leaves could be seen.

The sound of a branch breaking had her spinning around and surveying the area but nothing could be seen. Frustrated because she had still not found the suspect, she turned back around. Only too bad she hadn't kept her eyes trained on the path behind her because seconds after doing so, she felt something collide with her from the behind which sent her off balance.

* * *

><p>They were still racing through the woods, hoping that they were heading in the right direction. They were still lacking any knowledge of which way Emily had been running through the woods during the chase and the unease Morgan had felt before grew.<p>

What he really wanted to do was to call out her name but he knew that was to risky. If the suspect heard him he would realise more people were after him and they would lose the element of surprise. It was better to let him assume it was only Emily chasing him.

A few feet later Morgan's blood ran cold and he started having second thoughts about not calling out her name as the sound of a gunshot rang through the woods.

* * *

><p>The impact caused her to loose her footing and she ended up stumbling forward.<p>

She quickly recovered and spun around.

Behind her, a tall figure dressed in a black hoodie and dark jeans was swinging its hands towards her. She didn't have the time to aim and shoot before the second punch delivered by him landed. She managed to avoid getting punched in the face, which was what he had been aiming for, and got hit on the shoulder instead. This time the blow sent her stumbling backwards. She lost the grip she had on her Glock as she realised it to grab a hold of the not so secure railing to steady herself.

Seeing the Glock land next to her right foot she made a move for it. She managed to get a loose grip on it before she was pushed back against the railing. She then heard a crack and felt herself falling.

She fell, looking up at the bridge she could see the hooded figure looking down on her. Determined to make one last move, Emily brought her gun up, aimed and fired three shots.

As her back touched the cold water, a cry of pain could be heard from the bridge. Satisfaction filled her demeanour as she went under water. She got him.

* * *

><p>His heart was pounding as he raced towards what he thought had been the source of the gunshot. Please let it be Emily who fired, Morgan prayed as he kept running between the tree branches and rocks that covered his path.<p>

The pounding in his ears made him uncertain but he thought he heard a splash not far away from where he was. Even though his muscles were already burning, he once again quickened the pace and pushed them further. Sweat was running down his forehead and the sweat on his palms made his grip on the gun slippery.

After another duck to avoid getting slapped by a tree branch, he reached a bridge. By the bridge, the sound of splashing was louder and Morgan guessed that there was water beneath it. Curious about what was causing these splashing sounds, he moved towards the edge of the hill to get a better look. What he saw sent a small wave of panic through his body.

Twelve feet down, a body was just breaking the surface of the water. He immediately recognised the dark hair and the pale skin, it was Emily. Once she got her head above the water she started coughing and spitting. He heard her gulp for air and watched as she removed her hair from her face.

"Are you okay?" Morgan called down, worry etched in his voice.

Emily, not aware of his presence, spun around in the water trying to locate him. It didn't take long for her to do so.

"I'm fine," Emily coughed once she had spotted him. "I think I hit him, you should go after him!"

More determined to find out if she really was fine or if she was just telling him so, Morgan asked her again. "Are you sure you're okay? Did you get hit?"

Frustrated with him for not trusting her word, she sighed. "Morgan, I told you before, I'm fine!" she shouted in a raspy voice. "I didn't get hit. From what I could see, he didn't even have a gun."

Emily made a short pause to spit out some water that had found its way into her mouth.

"I think he went that way," she finished and pointed in a direction.

Resolute to leave her, Morgan looked to where she was pointing then back to her. She did look okay though. She didn't look any worse than last time he saw her, not that her condition had been supreme then, but still. The only difference he could detect at the moment was the fact that she was soaking wet.

He took one hesitant step away from the edge and looked down at her. He could see she was getting frustrated with him for not doing as she told him to. Morgan reasoned that since he hadn't spotted any new injuries, it was best to do as she told him and start searching for the suspect. An angry Emily Prentiss wasn't something he wanted to deal with later so he turned around after one last glance down at her and gestured for the Officer to follow him across the bridge.

* * *

><p>Emily continued coughing and watched as Morgan finally ran over the bridge, heading in the direction she suspected the man had run off in.<p>

Once she had made him search for the suspect, she concentrated on herself. Her back stung from its impact with the surface and if she had to take a wild guess, she would say a bruise was now developing on it. She made a mental inventory of the rest of her body and came up with a sore shoulder and some scraped knuckles but nothing severe.

During her fall, she had made sure she had had an iron grip on her gun. What made her do so was the fact that she didn't want to be the one forcing the divers into this creepy water only to retrieve her gun. Happy with her accomplishment to keep the gun in her hand during the fall, she put it back in its holster in which time she also kept treading water to keep herself above the surface.

She looked up at the stone walls surrounding her on both sides and concluded that they were to steep for climbing on. She spun around in the water and searched for either a less steep wall or a lower one.

Not too far away she thought she could see a possible way to get out of this pond of toxic waste. Because she was pretty sure that was what she had ended up in. The water tasted so weird Emily was afraid she might catch a incurable disease if she swallowed any more of it. When falling down a amount of water had made its way down her throat without her consent and she hardly thought she would ever be able to get rid of the taste.

She swam in the direction she thought she had spotted her way up from this soup. She didn't want to think about what the icky stuff she accidentally came across with her hands were as she swam so she kept her focus on her goal.

Exactly like she had thought, the wall she had seen was a bit lower and not as steep as the one near the bridge was. As she reached for the first uneven space to put her hand around she felt a strain in her shoulder and cursed in french.

"Merde," she swore and once again forced herself to reach for the next place to put her hand.

She kept hauling herself up by placing her hands and feet on the uneven cliff and had just made it all the way up when she felt a hand on her back.

The sudden contact made her jerk away and she would have ended up back in the pond of toxic waste if it hadn't been for the grip around her arm.

"Take it easy, Princess," Morgan coaxed as he felt her move away.

"How about announcing yourself before getting all hands on," Emily said sarcastically.

Her snappy comment made Morgan chuckle. "I see that the fall did't knock the smart ass comments out of you."

"Why would it? They have survived things much worse than this," Emily smiled and gratefully accepted Morgan's help to get up.

Once standing upright, Emily looked down at her soaked clothes. "Great," she mumbled. She would defiantly have to throw them because she would never get the smell out of them. "Did you catch him?" she then asked as she looked back up.

"No, the bastard must have known where to go or he's still hiding out there somewhere..." Morgan said with a frustrated sigh. "But you were right, you did shoot him. From the looks of it, you didn't hit any major arteries because the blood trail he left wasn't that big but the fact that he did leave a blood trail is one hell of a good thing. Now we have DNA," Morgan smiled. "I told the Officer to call in the techs and then to guard the trail to make sure nobody contaminates it."

"Good," Emily said.

"How about you, did you get a good look at him?" Morgan asked hopefully.

"No, that piece of ass kept his hoodie on and prevented me from getting a good look of his ugly mug. I only got what we already know, white man in his late forties to early fifties," Emily sighed.

"Too bad," Morgan said in disappointment.

They silently started walking their way back to the bridge and Emily could feel him studying her. When she had had enough of his staring, she decided to confront him.

"What?" she asked looking at him.

Morgan stopped and turned to her. "What were you thinking, running off on your own like that? You could have been killed," Morgan tried to keep his voice straight but some of his anger had shone trough.

"I was thinking that I had the opportunity to stop the person who almost blew us up from hurting any more people," Emily defended her actions in a stern voice. "And don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same if it had been me holding the girl and you spotting him because I know you would have done what I did."

Morgan let out a frustrated sigh and ran his hands over his bald head. "I know, I know but still, I don't like you running off like that without any back-up."

"I can take care of myself," Emily argued, her temper starting to show.

"That's not what I meant," Morgan breathed. "I'm not saying that you can't because I know you can, what I meant was that I don't want to see you get hurt. And that I find it very frustrating when I can't be there to back you up. You are my partner and that means I'm suppose to have your back. Always."

Sensing that maybe Morgan wasn't only talking about what had happened today, Emily tried to see the resent event form from his point of view. If he, her partner, would have shown up all black and blue to work only to days later run after a man suspected of killing five people how would she feel? Probably the same as Morgan was feeling right now, she concluded.

"Okay, I get it," Emily said in a understanding tone. "And I'm sorry for snapping at you when you're only trying to look out for me."

Morgan smiled as he accepted her apology. His smile caused the corners of her mouth to curl into one too. He then threw his arm around her shoulders and gave her a light squeeze only to seconds later realise his mistake as he felt his shirt getting wet.

"Woman, you are making me wet," he teased and wiggled his eyebrows as he let go of her.

"And that's a problem?" Emily played along and raised her eyebrows, looking mischievously at Morgan.

"Only when you stink," he grinned and gave her shoulder a light push.

"Haha, very funny Derek," Emily said dryly as she faked being offended.

Neither one of them could keep a serious face for long and ended up in laughter. Morgan was the first one to lose it and when he lost it, Emily couldn't keep a straight face anymore and joined in on his laughter.

* * *

><p><em>AN: So what do you think of our little baddie? He's kind of bold, sending them a recording like that. Anyways, come back next time to find out how Hotch will react to Emily's little stunt, running off alone like that..._


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: I apologise for the long wait, school have been very hectic these last couple of days before Christmas. I've been studying for exams and finished writing my essays. I've also had to find some time to go Christmas shopping for a few hours. Anyhoo, here it is. Happy reading and enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

* * *

><p>The rest of the team watched from inside their cars as Morgan and Emily emerged from the woods, one soaking wet and the other one with a resolute face.<p>

The duo made it over to the team as the ambulance drove away in a hurry, the teenager safe inside.

"What happened?" JJ asked as soon as the two were within hearing distance.

"He threw me into the pond," Emily casually answered and wrung her wet hair. A pool of discoloured water formed next to her right foot as she did.

"Who? Morgan?" JJ asked in puzzlement and sent Morgan an accusatory glance.

Morgan's eyebrows rose and then he gave JJ a 'you can't be serious' look.

"No, not Morgan," Emily quickly answered. "The UnSub, or at least who I think is our UnSub."

"The UnSub was here?" Reid asked bewildered.

"Apparently he likes to watch," Emily said with a shrug.

Up until this point Hotch had kept quiet but now he felt the need to get a hold of things. "Can we please just rewind the tape for a minute. How come you ended up in the pond?"

Morgan started to tell them about how they had arrived at the scene without any back-up, he also made sure to explained why so that the Officers wouldn't be blamed. He then moved on to telling the team about how he and Emily had decided to try to save the girl that was possibly inside the house and how they had made a run for it. He systematically told them about the events leading up to them finding the girl and how they had made it out just in time before the house exploded.

After finish telling them about how Emily had seen the dark clothed figure hiding behind the trees and taking off in a sprint Morgan turned to Emily. He was waiting for her to tell them about the events that took place after Emily had seen the lurking figure, what resulted with her in a pond of toxic waste and left the UnSub with a hole in his arm.

Emily told them about how she had spotted him and raced towards him. He had then started to run himself and the chase had begun. She told them how she had managed to stay behind him for pretty much the entire time but that she lost him before she reached the bridge.

"And as you could see, Morgan, the bridge wasn't in a pristine condition..." she said turning to him.

Furthermore, she told them about how she had searched the bridge only to be ambushed by the UnSub. She told them about the short fight and how he had managed to disarm her, only to throw her off the bridge once she had the gun in hand. She elaborated on how she had hit him at least once before going under water and then told them about how Morgan had showed up.

"I told Morgan to run after him but he stayed put and kept asking if I was okay. He refused to leave before I had told him that I were fine, twice," Emily said and glared at him.

"Seriously, Prentiss, we already went over this back at the pond," Morgan drawled.

"Fine!" Emily said and threw her hands up in mock surrender.

Hotch, who had listened carefully to their story, comprehended everything they had told him and came up with some unanswered questions.

"Morgan, why didn't you go with her?" he asked the younger Agent.

Morgan realised then that he had forgot to tell them about the part where he had been forced to stay at the house because of the girl who had been sobbing in his arms, so he did.

"I understand," Hotch said mostly to himself, one less question circulating his mind. Then he turned to Emily.

"You broke protocol," he said to her with a stern face.

She hadn't been expecting that, maybe a how are you or a good job but definitely not that. "Excuse me?" Emily asked in confusion.

"We specifically told the Officers and Detectives not to pursue any kind of chase if they came across the UnSub when they were alone. That's exactly what you did."

The rest of the team subconsciously took a few steps back from the circle that had formed to give the two some privacy to discuss the serious matter.

"Hotch, I almost got him!" By now Emily's confusion had turned into irritation. She had done a good job!

"It doesn't matter, Prentiss. You almost getting him nearly resulted in your death. I can't have Agents running off on their own into what, most likely, would be a certain death. If not lucky, which you were this time. I know that did the trick in the Agency but that's not how it works at the Bureau."

At first, she felt herself pale, then she was fuming. Why was he talking to her like it was her first day at the job? And how dare he bring up the sensible subject of her time with the Agency in front of the others? He knew perfectly well how her work there had messed up her relationship with the team and the few she had with anyone outside the office.

The other Agents standing a few feet away, pretending to not listen, felt the air becoming heavier and started to doubt that the fight was simply about Emily running after the UnSub alone like she had.

JJ watched as her friend paled and then tensed. She suspected that Hotch's comment had something to do with Emily's trust in the team and to be honest, JJ couldn't blame him for questioning it. She still felt a little bit betrayed that Emily hadn't confided in her and told her that she had been dating someone for as long as she had.

Rossi, who listened to every word the two Agents exchanged, noticed the other Agents sending each other looks. He choose to avoid eye contact with them since he didn't want to partake in the silent conversation. If he was about to take a wild guess he would say that some unresolved issues from the Doyle-thing still remained between superior and subordinate.

Morgan, feeling the urge to defend Emily's actions since he would have done exactly the same, then decided to speak up after silently communicating with the others.

"She did what she thought was right," Morgan argued and took a stand next to his partner. He had seen the way her face had paled when Hotch had brought up the subject of her CIA work and Morgan hoped that his words would work as some sort of support. He was afraid that she was more vulnerable than she usually was because of how her last couple of days have been.

The look Hotch sent Morgan told him that the conversation was between him and Emily only and that everybody else should stay out of it. Since the look Morgan received told him to back off, he did. But not before sending Hotch a stare of disapproval.

"I need to trust my Agents to follow their own guidelines," Hotch said cooly, indicating what they had said while giving their profile on the UnSub: do not pursue a chase without any back-up.

"What would you've said if I had caught him? If I had, you would've given me a pat on the shoulder. Not scold me for doing my job!"

"I would still have told you that what you did was wrong," Hotch told her matter of factly.

"Yeah right," Emily snorted.

"I suggest you watch your mouth, Prentiss. This discussion is over for now and I don't want to see you repeat this mistake again, because if you do then you're off this case. Have I made myself clear?" Hotch locked eyes with her and waited for her confirmation.

It took every once of self control Emily had to keep the snappy comment she had waiting on the tip of her tongue from leaving her mouth. Instead of giving him a verbal answer she gave him a reluctant nod accompanied by an angry glare.

"Good," Hotch said and chose to ignore the glare he got from her. "I'm ordering you to go to the hospital to have a Doctor examine you."

"I don't need to go to the hospital!" Emily immediately argued.

"That's an order," Hotch said in a tone that clearly told her there was no room for arguing. "And we'll need your clothes for evidence."

"Oh, do you suggest I go to the hospital naked?!" Emily mouthed off.

"Come on Emily, we'll find some dry clothes for you to wear and then I'll take you," JJ chimed in and prevented Emily from getting into more trouble than she already was in. JJ then reached out for Emily's arm, took a gentle but determined hold of it and started leading her towards one of the SUVs.

"I can walk on my own!" Emily snarled and yanked her arm free. "Where do you suggest we'll find me any dry clothes? It's not like anyone walks around with an extra pair to a crime scene?"

"I'll find some," JJ assured her and walked over to one of the squad cars parked a few feet away from their own vehicles.

After a few minutes she returned with an oversized sweat shirt and a pair of sweats at least three sizes too big for Emily.

"The nice Officer over there let you borrow these," JJ said once she reached Emily's side and held out the clothes for her to grab.

She took the clothes from JJ and from the look on JJ's face, Emily figuring out that she wanted her to thank the Officer who had been kind enough to lend her the clothing. Emily gave the man a laboured smile which he returned with a more genuine one.

"I guess he didn't have any underwear to offer?" Emily said sarcastically as she opened one of the backdoors of the car and climbed in.

Emily was thankful for the tinted windows as she started to strip out of her wet clothes. It wasn't her first time changing in the backseat of a car and the clothes came off smoothly.

During her teenage years, changing in the backseat of a car had become a habit. On her way to a party, she left the house in regular clothing with the more provocative ones stuffed in a backpack. She had put them there so that she wouldn't cause any suspicion of where she was going if the staff ever saw her leave the house. After leaving the house she usually walked a few blocks before one of her friends picked her up and let her change in the backseat. Those nights usually ended with her highly intoxicated, either in someones bed or on the bathroom floor next to the toilet. Never in her own home though. She couldn't risk her mother finding out what she did when she left the house.

Emily dumped her wet pile of fabric on the floor of the car but kept her underwear on. She wasn't about to go to the hospital without any panties or a bra, besides she couldn't come up with a good reason for them to be included as evidence. It's not like collecting them would get them any closer to catching their UnSub.

She picked up the sweat shirt from the pile of dry ones and slid it over her head after she had disposed of her wet clothes. While she did so, she noticed that it read Utah Police Department on the back of the shirt. She got curious about if the pants had the same print on them and turned them around before putting them on. When she didn't come up with anything, she turned them back around, slid them up her legs and fastened them at her hips.

Thanks to her experiences of changing in cars, the ordeal didn't take long and soon she exited the backseat wearing the way too big clothes while holding her own in her hands.

Outside the car Emily was met by JJ who held out a bag for her to put the wet clothes in. Emily did so and then went to sit in the passenger seat, crossed her arms and put them over her mid torso. She was now impatiently waiting for JJ, who had walked over to Hotch to give him the bag, to return so that they could make the, according to Emily, very unnecessary trip to the hospital.

* * *

><p>Emily sat fuming all the way to the hospital and JJ, who had been given strict orders not to let Emily drive, had abandoned the task of trying to start a conversation after Emily only had answered her questions with one word sentences.<p>

JJ knew not to take Emily's bad mood personal and accepted the fact that Emily spent her time slightly angled away from her, looking out the window.

The car came to a halt outside the hospital and JJ thought she might not have any other option than to carry Emily inside when Emily surprised her by stepping out of the car as soon as it had stopped moving. Once out of the car, Emily started walking towards the entrance in a rapid pace and JJ hurried after, locking the car with the remote car key as she tried to keep up with her friend.

Inside, the atmosphere was like expected at hospital. Anxiety radiated from the friends and family members who were seated in the waiting room. Nurses and Doctors hurried past them and the strong smell of whatever kept the place so clinically clean attacked their noses and made them sting. In the back of the hall, a counter could be seen and that was what Emily set her course towards.

She zigzagged her way forward and JJ tried to keep up the pace. Nothing else than determination could now be seen on Emily's face.

"My name is Agent Emily Prentiss. My superior is forcing me to have a check up before he allows me back in the field and I need you to check for any available personnel capable of preforming that task," Emily told the nurse behind the counter as she slammed her credentials down for her to see.

"Ehm.. Sure let me check," the Nurse said as her fingers started hitting the keyboard connected to the computer in front of her. "Doctor Hemingway just finished her rounds and should be available to assist you."

The Nurse finished talking and turned her head up to meet Emily's eyes. What she saw in them were irritation, anger and frustration. "I'll page her right away. You can wait over there," the Nurse said and pointed to a corner where a few chairs stood.

"Fine," Emily said and stomped her way to the chairs.

JJ had made a point of keeping herself in the background, only not to agitate Emily any further, but now after witnessing her friend's rude behaviour towards the Nurse she felt the need to apologise.

"I'm sorry about my friend," JJ began with an apologetic smile. "She's kind of having a bad day, or maybe more like a bad week," she corrected herself. "She is usually not that rude and I'm sorry about that."

The Nurse gave JJ a grateful smile and then looked over to where Emily was now seated, juddering her leg up and down in agitation. "We all have them," she said and JJ felt herself relax. She then made her way over to Emily.

"That was really rude," JJ said as she reached her.

"What?" Emily said whipping her head towards JJ who had sat down in the chair next to hers.

"Treating the Nurse like that, she didn't do anything to you."

Emily ignored JJ's comment about her behaviour and turned her head back around.

JJ let out a frustrated sigh and reasoned that it would be better to talk to Emily about it later when she had calmed down.

They sat in silence as the minutes passed.

"What is taking so freaking long?!" Emily complained.

JJ didn't care to answer, knowing no matter what she said Emily would lash out on her.

"Agent Prentiss?" a woman in a white coat called as she appeared in the hallway.

"Finally!" Emily said and shot to her feet.

"If you could please follow me and we'll get started," the Doctor said and started walking off in a direction.

Emily quickly followed with frustrated steps and left JJ alone, waiting for her friend to complete her examination.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later the Doctor JJ recognised as Emily's emerged and walked over to the counter to exchange a few words with the Nurse. As she recognised her, JJ made her way over and cleared her throat.<p>

"How is she?" she asked.

"She is a very uncooperative patient," the Doctor said looking down at her notes clipped to the chart.

"Tell me about it," JJ mumbled.

This made the Doctor break into a smile. "Except for being too stubborn for her own good she is fine and cleared for active duty. She sustained a quite large bruise on her back from the fall and a muscle strain in her shoulder but nothing too severe. The strain isn't a problem and it will be able to heal on its own. I gave her some antibiotics to prevent her from catching anything from the water she swallowed and I hope they will do the trick. As to her old injuries, which she by the way refused to let me examine, I guess there is an explanation?"

Relieved that Emily's injuries were not worse, JJ was able to let out the breath she didn't realise she had been holding. "Yeah she sort of got into a fight..." JJ offered.

"A fight?" the Doctor questioned with raised eyebrows.

JJ was saved from having to come up with a better lie by Emily, stomping her way through the hallway.

"Come on, JJ, we're leaving," she ordered as she walked passed her and grabbed a hold of JJ's arm, dragging her along.

"Emily, slow down!" JJ said and jerked her arm free.

Emily didn't do as she was told yet kept the same pace until she reached the car. Since JJ was the one who had the keys, Emily had no other choice but to wait for her.

A few feet away from the car, JJ decided that Emily had waited long enough and pressed the button to unlock the car. As soon as Emily heard the familiar click, she threw the passenger door open and climbed inside.

JJ walked around the car in a cool manner and took her time fastening the seatbelt. Once safely secured she put the key in the ignition and turned it. The car roared to life and JJ changed gears.

Halfway back to the station neither woman had said a word. JJ thought that it might be for the best if Emily was left alone to deal with her own thoughts for a while.

In the middle of a turn JJ remembered that Hotch had asked her to call after they were done at the hospital, something that had totally slipped JJ's mind. With one hand on the steering wheel she used the other one to pick up her cell from one of her pants pockets. In the corner of her eye, JJ saw that her actions had caught Emily's interest as she registered Emily's eyes trailing the movement of her hand.

Phone in hand, JJ used one of the speed dial buttons to reach him instead of searching trough her contacts. After the fourth ring, he picked up.

"Hotchner," he answered her call.

"Hey, Hotch, it's JJ. I just wanted you to know that we're done at the hospital and on our way back."

"What's the Doctor's verdict?" he wanted to know.

"Fit for duty with some bruising and a banged up shoulder, nothing severe," JJ informed him.

"Good. Though I think it would be good if she take the remaining of the night off. If it's okay with you I would like you to drive her back to the hotel and then come back here on your own?"

"Sure, no problem, Hotch. See you soon!" JJ said and ended the call.

During her conversation JJ had seen how Emily's interest had increased but she wasn't about to tell her anything about what had been said. If she wanted to know what the phone call had been about, she had to actually come out and ask the question. With as much discretion as possible, JJ changed her course to the hotel while mentally preparing for the argument she knew was about to come.

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" Emily asked as the car came to a halt in the parking lot to the hotel.<p>

"I'm following Hotch's orders. He told me to take you back to the hotel to rest," JJ said.

"I don't need to rest," Emily argued.

"Not my call," JJ said in a calm manner, trying to avoid getting into a fight with the woman.

"Drive me back to the station," Emily ordered.

JJ shot her a glare. "No."

Sensing that JJ wasn't about to do as she liked, Emily tried another tactic. One she usually hated to use but it would be worth it if it worked.

"Come on, JJ. Please!" she pleaded.

"No," JJ said once again.

Emily let out a frustrated sigh. "It's not that hard. Just drive back and tell them that I threatened to shoot you or whatever, just drive!"

"Are you?" JJ questioned.

"What? Threatening you?" Emily said in a uncertain voice.

"Yes," JJ said with a blank face.

"Of course not, JJ! I'm just trying to help you come up with an explanation to why you brought me back to the station."

"Well, I won't need one because that's not gonna happen."

"JJ!" Emily whined.

"No, get out of the car and inside before I use my taser on you and drag you inside myself!" JJ choose to come up with a little unrealistic threat of her own.

"You wouldn't," Emily said as she narrowed her eyes.

"No, that's true but I could call the guys and have them carry you inside," JJ said and this threat she wasn't afraid to fulfill.

"Yeah, right," Emily scoffed.

As she did, JJ once again reached for her phone. Emily watched as she did and then violently pushed the door open and exited the car. She then slammed the door shut with much more force than necessary and started to march off towards the hotel entrance.

JJ just shook her head at her friends stubbornness and began the drive back to the station after she had made sure Emily made it inside.

* * *

><p>She arrived at the station ten minutes later and was met by questioning gazes from her team members.<p>

"She's fine," JJ assured them as soon as she got within hearing distance. "Pissed off, but fine."

All Agents except Morgan seemed happy with her answer and resumed the task they had been preforming before she walked in. Morgan, on the other hand, wanted more answers.

"You're sure she is fine?" he quietly asked JJ.

Knowing that a simple 'yes' would not calm his worries, JJ choose to tell him the long version of the hospital visit.

"She sustained some bruising on her back from the fall and a strained shoulder but according to the Doctor it will heal on its own so she is in no need to revisit. Not much to our surprise, she is a very uncooperative patient and preferred to argue with the Doctor during the whole exam. The Doctor also gave her some antibiotics to prevent her from caching anything from the water she swallowed. On our way to the hospital she sat quiet, which she also did on our way back. When I stopped in front of the hotel she tried to make me drive her here and I had to threaten to call you guys before she finally left the car and stomped away, fuming."

A small smile sneaked up on Morgan's face as he the picture of a fuming Emily, forced to leave the car and stay at the hotel, was created in his mind.

"Thank you," he said gratefully to JJ, thankful for her understanding that he needed more than just a plain 'yes, she is fine'. Even though JJ had reduced his worries for his friend's wellbeing, he decided to check in on her on his own before going to bed later tonight.

"You're welcome," she said and gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "Should we get back to work?"

Morgan nodded his yes.

"So, where do you need me?" JJ asked, looking expectantly at the Profilers working on their respective tasks.

* * *

><p>She walked in to the hotel lobby in her way too big clothes and marched off to her room. If Hotch forced her to take the night off she was going to use it to make herself feel less like a zombie.<p>

The first step in that direction was to take a shower, she could still smell the stench from the pond all over her and she was pretty sure it had nested itself to her hair. It was going to take forever to get rid off. She estimated that she had at least three turns of shampooing ahead of her.

By now she had reached her door and slid the keycard inside the electronic lock. The small lamp turned green which told her she could enter.

Inside she went straight to her go-bag and collected the necessities she needed for her decontamination shower. On her way to the bathroom she picked up one of the white towels laying in the cabinet by her bed.

In the bathroom she stripped out of her borrowed clothes and made a mental note to actually thank the nice Officer who had been kind enough to lend her them. Preferably not when she was as pissed off as she was right now.

With more force then actually needed she slid the shower curtain to the side and entered the shower. She turned on the water after forcing the shower curtain back on its place and shivered as the cold water hit her skin. Thinking that she already had her daily dose of cold water, she turned up the heat.

The shower took almost an hour and she had, as she had predicted, been compelled to shampoo her hair three times but that wasn't to get away with the smell. It had been to get rid of the algae and what else had found its way into her hair. Then she had to shampoo it a fourth time to make the smell go away completely.

Unfortunately, the shower hadn't done a good job with washing away her irritation. Dressed in pyjama shorts and a tank top she emerged from the bathroom with a temper.

She was still annoyed with the fact that Hotch had scolded her for trying to do her job. Fine, she might had ignored a warning she herself had urged others to take seriously. And okay, she had been reckless in doing so but _if_ she hadn't been thrown off the bridge, the UnSub would most likely be dead or in custody right now so it had been worth a try.

She let out a frustrated sigh and massaged her forehead. This whole ordeal had made her headache return and she was in desperate need of an aspirin. Remembering that she had some left in her bag, she started searching for them but what caught her attention wasn't the pills but her ringing phone laying on the nightstand.

With a almost audible complaint from her muscles she rose from crouching down by her bag on the floor, walked to the nightstand and picked up her ringing phone.

She didn't recognise the number showing on the screen but pressed the answer button anyway.

"Hello?" she answered somewhat hesitant.

"Finally you answer!" an all to familiar voice greeted her on the other side of the line. A voice whose owner Emily felt no desire to talk to.

"You changed your number," Emily stated angrily. She had hoped he wouldn't have come up with that idea but apparently he had.

"And you couldn't sound any happier about it," Dylan snorted sarcastically.

"Well, I had my reasons for blocking your number the first time so I'm sorry I'm not in seventh heaven right now," Emily mouthed off. "What do you want, Dylan?"

"I wanted to see if your black _friend _had talked to you about what we talked about this morning?"

"What? Who? Morgan?" Emily asked in total confusion. Why the hell had her ex called Morgan? And if he had, why had Morgan not hung up on him? Emily vaguely remembered Morgan walking up to her, telling her that he needed to talk to her about something this morning but he never really got the time to do it. Was it Dylan's call he had meant?

"So he hasn't told you," Dylan said in a satisfied tone. "Well, you see we had a little chat this morning about how he should leave you alone. I can't have my girl running off with different guys when I'm not there to satisfy her needs."

Emily didn't even have the energy to answer him. She felt herself loose all kinds of perspective and just let go. She couldn't handle it anymore. She had lost control of her own life and she didn't know what to do with it anymore.

She had tried not to dwell on how Dylan had treated her and move on. That was easier said than done.

She had tried not to make her friends worry about her when she showed up at work bruised and with a bloody lip. No success there.

She had tried to ignore the fact that she had once again fallen for a jerk. She thought she had learned from her mistakes, but apparently not.

She had tried not to think about how much it hurt when she realised Dylan wasn't the person she thought he was. She refused to admit it but it hurt, it hurt a lot.

She had tried to make Dylan disappear from her and her teammates' life by blocking his number and severing all contact. Like she thought that would do the trick.

And now he had nestled his way back in and she felt herself falling apart.

It wasn't a nice feeling, not at all. The protective walls she had built up for herself were starting to come down and as they did, all the emotions she had stored behind those walls were set free.

Her eyes started to tear up as everything became to much. She felt a pressure over her chest and breathing became an effort. Even blinking became exhausting.

Her compartmentalisation skills were failing her and she could do nothing to stop them from doing so.

She felt her throat contract. The hand in which she held her phone lost its ability to grip and the phone slid out of its grasp, down on the bed on which she was sitting on, only to end up on the floor. She vaguely could hear Dylan calling her name through the pulse racing in her ears but she ignored him.

After a while the only thing she could hear was her own heartbeat and laboured breathing. He must have hung up, she concluded. Good. Now she had time to think and hopefully time to pull herself together.

All of a sudden she started to laugh, a melancholy laugh lacking any hint of life. Her emotions were a confusing mess and she didn't know how to handle it.

Or maybe she did.

Sitting on the bed, a lifeless laugh having just escaped from within her, she let her eyes to wander the room. Plain, boring walls, a closet, a cupboard, the slightly opened bathroom door and so on.

After surveying it for a minute her eyes sought out the one thing she knew would help her forget. The one thing that had worked so well in the past and wouldn't let her down this time either.

As her eyes locked on it, she started having a mental debate with herself.

She couldn't. No, that wouldn't be right.

Or could she? She had done it before. Never on the job though but technically she was off duty now anyways.

Her mind went from yes to no and then back to yes for quite some time. Then it went blank, settling on only one answer.

Laboriously, she rose from the bed in a slow motion. Standing on her own two feet she started to wandered towards it with exhausted steps.

* * *

><p><em>AN: I think that's my first cliffhanger if I remember it correctly. I guess it's kind of mean leaving you with it like that but I'll do it anyway. Hopefully Santa will look past it and give me some presents despite the fact that I did. Please let me know what you think and tune in next time to find out what caught our dear Emily's interest._

_Merry Christmas everybody! _


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: First of all I would like to say that I'm amazed by how many people find my story worthy enough to follow/favourite! Thank you guys, you make me so happy! _

_Now on to the story._

* * *

><p><strong>Hide &amp; Seek<strong>

**A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction**

**by sweda**

* * *

><p>He knew the right thing was to give her space but he needed to know she was okay. That was why he was standing outside her hotel room, knocking on her door and hoping that she would open. He knew she was still awake even thought it was almost midnight. He could tell by the light streaming out to the hallway from underneath her door.<p>

On his way back to the hotel, he had decided to check up on his partner before going to bed even though JJ had already assured him that Emily was okay. He knew he was being overprotective but he had to see her with his own eyes to believe JJ's words.

He waited for her to open the door but she didn't. When he was left with no answer he decided to knock again, this time with a little more force. Maybe she had gone to bed with the lights on and was already asleep. As soon as the thought came to him, he dismissed it. He was sure she was awake. Maybe she just hadn't heard him the first time he knocked.

He waited some more and after still not getting an answer from the other side of the door, he started to get worried. What if something had happened to her and she couldn't get to the door? What if she had slipped and fallen in the shower? Or if she had accidentally locked herself in the bathroom?

He debated whether or not he should kick the door in but decided that the best option was to knock once more and if she still didn't answer the door, he would break it.

The answer he was waiting for didn't come. He had just backed up a few steps and was about to lift his right foot to kick the door in when it flung open.

"Wha'dya want?"

Morgan took a second to take in her appearance. She slurred her words when she talked and her voice was raspy. The half-empty bottle in her hand and the smell of alcohol when she spoke didn't go unnoticed by him. The black rings under her glassy, bloodshot eyes confirmed his worries for her. Emily Prentiss wasn't fine.

"I want to make sure you're okay," he told her and tried to get a better look into her room.

Looking over her shoulder he spotted a number of empty bottles tossed on the bed. Morgan could only assume that they had contained the same as the one she was holding onto.

"Oh, I'm peachy!" Emily said as she took a gulp of her clear liquid and walked back into her room, leaving the door open.

She began pacing along the wall furthest away from the door as Morgan stepped inside after her. He had taken the open door as an invitation to enter and closed it behind him.

Now he could get a better view of the bottles tossed on her un-slept bed and concluded that they were originally from the mini bar.

They never drank while on the clock so the matter of mini-bars in their hotel rooms had never been discussed. But now Morgan wondered if she had turned to alcohol before. His worries grew as he saw the actual amount of bottles laying there.

"You have been drinking," Morgan said mostly to himself but Emily heard him. His next words were meant to be heard by her as he expressed his worries for her. "You're on antibiotics. You're not supposed mix alcohol and medication. Especially not that much."

His voice had been full of concern while he spoke but Emily only registered the first part of his statement that she had been drinking. When hearing those words, she was immediately railed back to when someone else spoke those exact same words to her only a few days ago.

* * *

><p><em>"You have been drinking," Dylan stated with a tone of disgust.<em>

_Emily was taken aback. Since when did he have a problem with alcohol? During their first date, he had been the one insisting they should order a nice bottle of wine to go with the dinner._

_"And I sure as hell hope that's not the dress you wore for your Boss's birthday party!"_

_Emily looked down at her dress and didn't understand what he meant. The dress was covering more skin than most of the dresses out there. It didn't even have visible cleavage which Emily had been careful to make sure it did to cover up the four leaf clover still branded on the left side of her chest._

_"What is wrong with this dress?!" Emily demanded to know._

_He let his eyes wander her body, making Emily uncomfortable, before answering. "Well first of all, it's way too tight to wear in front of your co-workers. And secondly, it makes you look like a whore," Dylan said and threw his arms out._

_"What the hell is wrong with you?! This is the exact same dress I wore on our third date!" Emily screamed as her discomfort transformed to rage._

_"What's wrong with me?! With me?!" Dylan yelled. "I'm not the one dressed like a hoe!"_

_Emily took a small step back at his harsh words. She was fighting so hard not to show him how much his harsh words affected her. Her eyes were burning from unwanted tears threatening to fall and she blinked rapidly to make them vanish. How could she ever think she loved him?_

* * *

><p>Without thinking, Emily projected the anger that had been building up against her ex to Morgan.<p>

Poor Morgan didn't know what effect his words would have on her and was taken aback by her reaction. He was prepared for a small outburst given how she reacted to statements like that in the past but he sure as hell wasn't prepared for what he came to face.

Exactly like before, Emily felt everything slip out of her grasp and she lost control. She tried to maintain her cool but she could practically see it as it slipped away from her. The alcohol in her system hadn't helped her to deal with her unwanted emotions like she had hoped. Unfortunately, it only made it harder for her to keep them at bay.

She was fuming and then exploded. "You're just like him! Tellin' me what to do an' not to do! What's next, huh? Maybe throw a fist at my face? Slam my head against the wall or scream at me that I'm a whore?!"

Morgan, shocked by her sudden outburst, caught himself feeling hurt. Did she really think so low of him that she thought he would do anything like that? Never in his life would he lay a hand on her and it pained him to think that she thought he might. He also realised that she had just described what Dylan had done to her during their fight. He had guessed the bruises on her wrist were Dylan's doing but hearing her blurt it out made his rage towards the man grow. Also the pain he felt for his hurting friend increased and made his heart ache for her.

"Emily, I would _never_ do that," Morgan told her looking into her eyes but she didn't hear him.

She was once again pacing the room and breathing heavily, a little unsteady on her legs from the alcohol in her system.

"Why does it always turn out like this?" Morgan heard her mumble as she stumbled back and forth along the wall.

She emptied the bottle she held in her hand and threw it on the bed. A loud clink could be heard as the bottle joined the bottles laying there.

"It always ends like this. No matter how hard I try, it always backfires."

He watched as her eyes became glassy and it looked like she zoned out. Desperate to bring her back to the present, he searched his brain for the best way to approach her. He could practically hear the wheels turning as he did.

"This is all my fault," Emily slurred.

Morgan's eyebrows knotted in confusion. What was she talking about? What was her fault? He continued to listen to her incomprehensible rambling. He still hadn't come up with a way to approach her.

"I hurt you guys so bad," Emily continued. "But I didn't mean to. I didn't-" she said as a sob wracked her body making her even more unsteady in her pacing. She took a few deep breaths and managed to keep the tears away for now. She was vaguely aware of Morgan's presence and she couldn't break down in front of him. It was bad enough that he had already seen her like this. Why did she even open the door for him? The best thing would have been to turn off the lights earlier so that everyone thought she was asleep.

Morgan hated to admit it, but his partner was having a meltdown. And it was scaring the shit out of him. The question of what she meant was her fault began circulating in his brain but he decided to leave his confusion about what the hell she was talking about for later. Instead he focused on trying to make her come back to the present. He could see she had trouble keeping her gaze focused on him the few times she actually looked his way. The times she did, her stare shifted between him and the wall behind him. Morgan suspected that it would be hard to get her attention but he would keep trying until he got it.

"Emily, we can talk about it," he tried. "Whatever it is you think is your fault, I'm here to listen."

A stop in her pacing and a flicker in her glassy eyes told him he was making some progress. Seconds later she returned to her pacing.

"I don't want to talk," she mumbled.

"I know you don't want to talk but it usually helps," Morgan tried to convince her. He was talking from his own experience. After her supposed death, he had been forced to talk about his feelings regarding it with Hotch. It still angered him that the man had just sat there and listened to him spilling his guts about his guilt and sorrow while knowing that Emily was very much alive. Morgan hadn't completely forgiven him for lying to the team but he had dealt with his anger and knew that it had all been for the safety of his partner.

"No, no, no," Emily shook her head and new tears began burning behind her eyelids. "I don't want to talk. I just want it to go away."

Morgan was afraid she might be starting to get hysterical if he let her continue so he decided to try to physically reach out to her since his words didn't seem to do any major difference. He walked towards her and gently reached out for her pacing form. Once his hand landed on her shoulder, she shrugged it off.

"Don't touch me," she told him and shied away. Her pacing never stopped.

"Emily, I want to talk to you," Morgan pleaded and lightly gripped her elbow, hoping it would make her stop her frantic pacing.

"I said, don't touch me!" Emily snapped.

She felt trapped. She didn't think about what she did next, the only thing she knew was that he was getting closer, trapping her further. She needed for him to give her space.

She put up her hands and pushed him away with as much force as she could muster.

The push had him stumbling backwards a step and unfortunately in that one step he lost his footing. He fell back and crashed into the dresser placed opposite of the bed. As he fell, he reached out for the solid wood object and managed to break the fall before he ended up with his ass on the floor.

Emily watched the consequences of her doing and only then did she register what she actually had done. In shock and shame she backed away from the mess she had created. She collided with the wall and as she did she barely registered the pain from when her bruised back connected with the wall.

What the hell had just happened? Had she really pushed him? Her partner who had never done anything to hurt her? The one person who constantly had her back and always wanted to protect her, even during the times she didn't need protection, which was pretty much all of the time if you asked her. The guilt she felt for her actions filled her drunken persona and she instantly hid her face behind her hands as it overwhelmed her. She never meant to push him, to physically hurt him. She began thinking that she was no better than Dylan who had done the same thing to her.

Then she finally gave in to her emotions and she let herself sink to the floor in uncontrollable sobs, much like she had after her fight with Dylan.

Morgan was stunned by her use of physical violence but didn't think twice about it as he watched his partner crash into the wall and sink down to the floor. The dull ache in his back didn't register in his mind, but he felt every stabbing pain in his heart as he watched the sobs wrack her body.

She began mumbling words of something in the line of I'm sorry and even though Morgan couldn't make out what she was saying, he understood what she meant.

"Hey, Emily, it's okay. I know you didn't mean to," Morgan soothed and straightened up. He then took the few steps separating them and was by her side in no more than two seconds.

Guilt, pain and failure was what she felt. She had actually pushed him when he was just trying to help! The pressure over her chest was back and bile started to rise in her throat. Even in her drunken state she knew she was definitely about to throw up.

Morgan was just about to sit down next to her when she shot up to her feet and raced to the bathroom on wobbly legs.

In her hurry to reach the toilet, she forgot to close the door behind her and as Morgan came running after her he found her hovering over the toilet, violently throwing up. In between her vomiting, he noticed she was still crying and that she was on the verge of hyperventilating as she struggled to inhale between the sobs and the gagging.

"Hey, easy," Morgan coached her as he gathered her hair in his hands and sank down next to her.

"Go away," Emily said and made a lame attempt to push him away.

Again with the pushing, Emily thought as another wave of nausea hit her and she was forced to hold her head over the toilet bowl.

"Not gonna happen," Morgan told her in a firm voice and as she started to throw up some more he began rubbing small circles on her back, hoping that it would ease her distress.

They stayed in that position for quite some time, Emily with her head over the toilet and Morgan by her side, until all of Emily's queasiness had gone away. Morgan then gave her some water to rinse her mouth and when she was done, he helped her move from the toilet to lean against the cold bathroom wall. Emily's hysterical crying had by then reduced to small whimpers and Morgan hoped she would be able to talk now, even though he knew she didn't want to.

Emily's forehead was damp with sweat so after giving her the drink, Morgan splashed some water on a small towel and handed it to her before crouching down next to her. From the looks of it, she had started to sober up a bit which was only to his advantage in matter of speaking with her. Her eyes were no longer as glassy as before but the redness in them still remained, now mostly the result of her crying.

He let her have some peace and quiet and made himself as comfortable as possible on the hard floor before he began speaking.

"Emily, talk to me," he pleaded and turned to look at her.

She refused to look at him so he ended up staring at her profile. Her face was paler than usual and the bathroom light made the tears falling down her face glisten.

Finally she answered him, but she still refused to meet his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said in a hoarse voice.

"Don't be," Morgan said. "I tripped over my own damn feet, there was no way that little lame touch of yours would have me crashing into the furniture." Morgan hoped that some teasing would do her good.

Thankfully it did. Upon hearing his teasing words her lips curled into a small smile. She dared to meet his eyes for a brief second before she looked away again.

Morgan managed to catch a glimpse of her smile and knew his joke had had the desired effect. He then decided to try to talk to her about tonight.

"What's going on with you?" Morgan asked in a soft voice, hoping that she would actually answer his question, not just give him some vague reply before dismissing it as she usually did when it came to questions about her emotions.

His question was met by silence and as the minutes ticked by Morgan refused to talk until Emily had said something.

"It hurts," she finally whispered in a small voice.

Morgan got a little surprised by her honest answer but quickly put the initial shock aside. "What hurts?" he gently probed.

"Everything," Emily sighed and tried to wipe away the tears.

She still refused to look at him but at least she was talking now.

"How does it hurt?" Morgan hoped to keep her talking by asking her more questions.

"You sound like a therapist," Emily scoffed.

Dodging the question, Morgan thought and said, "I don't care what I sound like. Emily, how does it hurt?"

Emily sighed and realised that it would be easier to just answer his questions than to avoid them. Since she had decided to open up to him, she finally turned to face him.

Her appearance took him by surprise. He knew she looked more or less like a mess but he wasn't prepared for the emptiness and defeat he saw in her eyes.

"Like... I don't know," Emily said and blew out a breath. "Like... Like something is crawling and aching on the inside," she ended up describing. "It doesn't even make sense," she muttered looking away from Morgan. She was really bad at this shit.

"Sure it does," Morgan argued and tried to regain eye contact with her.

"You're just saying that to be nice," Emily scoffed. She pulled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them.

"You know me better than to say that, Emily."

"Fine," she mumbled as she rested her head on her knees.

Her tears were still silently flowing and she hated herself for showing such weakness in front of her partner. How was he suppose to believe she was capable of having his back when she couldn't even keep her tears at bay?

"Hey, Emily. Look at me," Morgan begged and nudged the leg she had closest to him.

After taking a few deep breaths she obligated, but not before swiping her hands over her face in an attempt to swipe away the tears.

"How long have you been feeling like this?"

Talk about a loaded question, Emily thought. She didn't even know the answer herself. Sure, she had had her ups and downs since coming back but she thought she had got the bad days under control. That she could handle them by suppressing her feelings and hoping that pretending they didn't exist would do the trick. Apparently that hadn't worked so well as she had hoped for. Her way of dealing with her feelings and had only resulted in them piling up on each other and sooner or later that pile of crap became to much for her to bear, like it had today.

"I don't know for sure," Emily confessed. "I've had my fair share of bad days since returning but I've always managed to deal with them."

"Deal with them or pretend they don't exist?" Morgan questioned, already knowing the answer.

"You would call me out on a lie if I told you the first, right?" Emily uttered and smiled a small smile.

"You bet," Morgan answered, happy to see her smiling even though it was a tiny one.

"Then the latter I guess," Emily spilled.

For a while only silence and Emily's sniffling could be heard in the room.

"You said you've had you fair share of the bad ones but how about the good ones?"

"I've been happy," Emily reassured him.

There was a pause before she continued.

"As a matter of fact, from JJ's and Will's wedding up until this friday the good ones have outnumbered the bad ones. I don't know why everything is coming down on me right now. Seriously, I don't know what the hell I've done wrong in my life but I unmistakably did something to cause this mess!" Emily exclaimed and with a frustrated laugh.

"Maybe all the bad things that are happening right now is karma from my past or maybe it's just as simple as that the universe has a grudge against me, but I surely did something wrong to deserve this shit," Emily remarked and began rubbing her tired and blood-shot eyes.

She then moved on to furiously rubbing her forehead, trying to make the headache go away. She had forgotten about the aspirin she was about to take when Dylan called her and now she was experiencing the symptoms of a migraine. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves but it didn't work very well. Instead the anger she had felt back then was finding its way back into her system.

Morgan noticed her change of demeanour and was prepared for her outburst.

"And now I'm just angry!" she sighed. "I'm sick of people making the decisions for me, Doyle forcing me to make decisions you shouldn't have to make. I'm angry at Hotch for faking my death and forcing me into hiding. I'm sick of Dylan telling me what to do and not to do. How to dress and how to act!"

Morgan decided that the best thing to do right now was to keep quiet and let her get it out of her system. Sooner or later she would become too exhausted to even speak and then he could tell her what he wanted her to hear, that she was loved and no matter what she had done in her past, she didn't deserve this.

What she told him next made him believe that maybe she already knew all of that.

"When I woke up after Doyle, I was so happy to be alive. Being alive meant I would get to see you guys again, I would get to see Garcia's beautiful smile and hear JJ brag about Henry's successes. Rossi would still be able to teach me how to cook that special pasta dish he had been nagging about for months. And I would get to tease Reid with you," she smiled at the memories of how they use to gang up on Reid. "I would get to follow Hotch's orders and cheer on Jack as he played soccer. And most important of all, I would still be your partner," she said and the small smile she had remained on her face.

He felt his mouth curl into a matching smile as she lovingly described each team member and their relationship. Her description made himself evaluate his own relationship with the team members.

He loved to tease Reid; it was even more fun when Emily joined him. He also found his rambling quite interesting sometimes. And not to mention the strength he had to use to overcome his drug addiction.

He had a tremendous amount of respect for JJ. She was able to balance the extremely difficult task of being a mother to Henry and a wife to Will while at the same time having a successful career. He also thought about the fact that she had been the one to sort through all the open cases and deciding which one to prioritise for years, only to later become a profiler herself. He doubted he would be able to do that.

His thought went on to the rest of the team and ended on Emily. That damn stubborn, feisty, adorable, dorky partner of his.

He found himself thinking that he could never ask for a better partner. The seven months after her death had been hell, he had lost both his partner and his best friend at the same time. To be honest, he was still not over it even though he had gotten her back.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her voice. But this time he didn't see the spark in her eyes and love he had seen while she had been talking about the team, now he only saw sorrow and what she said made his heart ache for her.

"Then I noticed the empty room and started to get worried. Where were you? Had he manage to kill you anyway?" Emily paused and pulled her legs closer.

"I started to panic and was about to disconnect all the wires and tubes connected to my body when the door opened. I was thrilled to see Hotch entering the room until he opened his mouth and told me what he had done. He told me how he had faked my death and the reason for none of you being there was because you all thought I was dead. He told me that the only people who knew I was still alive were him, JJ and Clyde."

Morgan felt her retreat into her own bubble and her eyes turned dark as he flashed back to what he could only assume was her time at the hospital.

Her shoulders tensed and her knuckles turned white as she tightened the grip she had around her legs. To Morgan, it looked like she was trying to prevent herself from falling apart.

"I was so angry with him," she started off again. "I remember feeling like I was actually dead. I mean my life pretty much circulated around you guys and the job and if I couldn't have any of that, who were I? I told him to leave the room and I remember catching a glimpse of his expression before I turned to look out the window. His face was a mixture of guilt and compassion, but I didn't want his compassion or for him to feel guilty. I just wanted my life back."

Morgan wanted to say something but he didn't know what. He didn't know how to make her feel better. Fortunately for him, Emily kept talking.

"After that I told the Doctors that I didn't wish to have any visitors for as long as I would be staying there. They respected my wishes but still told me about the times Hotch and JJ came to visit. And the one time Clyde showed up," Emily told him. "I guess it was kind of selfish not to allow them access to my room but I needed some space to sort things out. Things like how to keep an eye on Declan without alerting Ian that I was still alive and so on. I also remember thinking about Sergio. Had someone taken care of him or had he been moved to live at a shelter?"

Emily realised she was rambling but she had never talked about her stay at the hospital and she kind of wanted to get it off her chest. She had even refused to go into detail about her hospitalisation with the therapist she had been forced to talk to after her return. When talking about it with the therapist, she had only briefly touched the subject and given the therapist the answers Emily knew she needed to hear to clear her.

"When I had recovered enough to move to Paris, JJ was the one handing me the necessities. Fake identities, credit cards, you name it. At that time, I hadn't spoken to Hotch since the day I threw him out of my room and I wouldn't until months later," she finished her story in a tired voice.

Morgan didn't know how to reply to her heartbreaking story. He wanted to comfort her but he knew she didn't want his pity. He ended up apologising, for what he wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry," he apologised.

Maybe he was apologising because he hadn't been there for her during those horrible

months.

Or maybe he did it because he hadn't gotten to her sooner that day in the warehouse. If he had, they would have thrown Doyle behind bars and Emily wouldn't have been forced into hiding.

Or maybe it was because he hadn't pushed her harder into talking with him, both now and back then. He had known something was bothering her but he still let her be once she refused to open up to him.

"Why are you apologising?" Emily asked as her eyebrows knotted in confusion. "You don't have anything to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry for not seeing how bad this is making you feel and for not doing anything before, both now and then. I should have pushed you harder into talking about how you were feeling, not just taking you to the shooting range and workouts," Morgan said and admitted what he saw as his failures as a friend.

"You couldn't have known," Emily argued. "I always kept the emotions hidden while around other people, even when alone. I'm the one who should be apologising. I'm sorry for lying to you back then and I'm sorry about tonight."

"We're good," Morgan assured her with a gentle nudge. "I have one question though."

"You can ask me anything right now and I promise to be honest. It's the least you deserve after tonight," Emily said.

Morgan could see this day was taking its toll on her and he was hoping her sleep would be peaceful once she finally got some but he wasn't quite done talking yet. He still had some things he wanted to clear up first. He took a few seconds to decide how to phrase the question but even though he did, he ended up like a rambling idiot.

"What caused you to have- What made you-" he struggled. He couldn't find the right words, no matter how hard he tried.

"What caused me to have this meltdown?" Emily supplied in a collected voice. She had come to terms with her situation now. "You can say it Derek. I had a meltdown."

"Okay, what caused you to have this meltdown?" It still didn't feel right. He hated that he had to ask her the question but he really needed an answer. Lately, the questions regarding Emily had become more and more and now he wanted the answer to at least one of them.

"Dylan called me," Emily supplied.

It was then that Morgan realised he forgot about telling her how Dylan had called him earlier today. He decided to not bring it up right now, she had a lot on her shoulders to deal with as it was right now and she didn't need any more shit piling up on them.

"And I know he called you too," Emily continued. "What did he say?"

Surprised that she knew, Morgan remained silent for a few seconds. "Nothing we can't talk about later."

She continued to surprise him by not demanding a different answer to her question. Instead she answered his.

"After I had answered his call and he started screaming at me, something in me just burst. I don't know how to describe it but I sort of became numb. I started thinking about everything that have gone wrong in the last two years and I feel like whenever I'm trying to do the right thing, it just ends up being the wrong thing," she sighed.

A lonely tear found its way down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away but Morgan still saw it. He chose not to let her see that he had. Instead he assured her that he understood what she meant by wanting to do the right thing but ending up doing the wrong thing.

"Like the chase today," Morgan said.

"Exactly," Emily confirmed, relieved that he understood her.

Her tears kept rolling down her cheeks and she angrily tried to wipe them away. When she didn't succeed, it felt just like another thing she had done wrong. She didn't want to feel this way!

The more tears she wiped away the quicker they fell and after failing over and over again she gave up and let them fall freely. She thought about the last couple of days' events and there it was again, that _feeling_. As she did her silent cry evolved into sobs.

"Shh," Morgan soothed, put his arm around her and pulled her to him.

She wouldn't admit it but she was thankful for his warmth. For a few seconds she forgot about being strong and independent and rested her head in the crook of his neck.

As her sobs increased, Morgan started to run his hand up and down her arm and held her tighter, offering as much comfort as he could. He was surprised Emily even let him hold her, he guessed she had come to the realisation that sometimes you need the support of others to get though your problems.

They stayed in that same position for a long time, Emily safely curled up next to him and Morgan with his strong arms around her, resting his head on top of hers. From time to time he placed a small kiss on it and tried to keep his own tears at bay. Even though he was happy that she let her feelings show, it hurt to hear, see and feel her cry.

The time passed by and as it did, Emily's sobs subsided. He could feel her body relax as she was starting to doze off. He let her keep up for quite some time before deciding it was time to get her in bed. After the day she had had, she didn't need to add falling sleep on the floor of a hotel bathroom and waking up with stiff body to her list.

"Come on, Baby. It's time for you to go to bed," he gently told her as he started to shift her into a position from which he would be able to lift her.

He gently scoped the almost sleeping Emily up, one hand behind her back and the other one at her knees. As he did, she began to stir but quickly settled in and nestled her head closer to his neck.

Morgan made sure not to disturb her further as carefully carried her to the bed. When he reached it, he tenderly placed her on top of it next to the empty bottles. A clinking sound could be heard as he moved them off the bed and pulled off the covers.

He then gingerly rolled her over to where he had removed the covers and tucked her in. A few strains of hair had ended up in her face because of the movement. With a soft touch he brushed them away before he bid her good night.

"Sleep tight, Princess," he whispered and caressed her head one last time before he started walking towards the door.

As he was about to reach for the door handle, he halted his movements. A soft sound had made him stop, he turned to the bed and saw Emily's mouth moving.

"Thank you," a sleepy Emily mumbled from her spot in bed.

Seconds later he could hear a steady breathing coming form her and he smiled as he realised she had fallen asleep. Good, he thought. That is exactly what she needs.

Morgan turned back around and was once again facing the door. He reached out for the door handle for the second time that evening and pushed down. He then walked out of her room across the hallway and into his own. When he left her room, he did it feeling little bit more comfortable now that he knew where his partner's mind was at. After this whole ordeal he felt like he understood her the complicated woman known as Emily Prentiss a little bit better and therefore had a better chance of easing the pain he knew she was in. Maybe she wasn't okay at the moment but he vowed that he would be there for her during the progress of one day becoming okay.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Aaaand there you have it. It turned out as a very long chapter but I hope you didn't get bored. As to Emily's little meltdown, I just felt like she needed to have some sort of breakdown because I don't think anyone can handle as much crap as she has without losing it at some point. I hope you guys agree with me and that you won't hunt me down because I sent our heroine down a dark path. Don't forget to tell me your thoughts, I always enjoy hearing from you!_


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